History of Porta Occidentalis

»Porta Occidentalis« is its Roman name. Through the »Iron Gate«, life of the 17th century was passed by each day. Ever since it was opened it bears witness to Illyrian, Greek, Roman and also Avar, Slav, Turkish, Italian, French, and other groups, until today when the sound of the renaissance clock tower marks the passage of home-grown Croatian genes. It’s a pity that during the 5th century AD Christians forcibly removed the statue of Nike, pagan goddess of victory, and placed it with the religious symbol of the cross in its place. In the 11th century a church »Gospe od Zvonika« was built, originally dedicated to St.Teodor, with a beautiful early-Romanesque bell tower. During the middle Ages the area of »propugnaculum« (Iron Gate) was used as a courtroom and the main street (»decumanus«) that connects eastern and westerns gate was called »The Commandants’ Street«. Even a casual glance reveals historical dynamics of the Iron Gate, and especially interesting is the specific style of residential construction in the wall itself, bell tower, part of the guard pathway over the remains of the octagonal towers and a beautiful view of the entire decumanus and a part of the »Peoples square«.