Viru Gate, Medieval city gate in Old Town, Estonia.
Viru Gate is a city gate in Tallinn's Old Town featuring two stone towers with pointed roofs that frame Viru Street. The structure connects the modern shopping district with a maze of medieval alleys, showcasing Gothic architecture with thick walls and narrow passages.
The gate was built in the 14th century as a defensive structure and was originally part of a broader fortification system. In the 19th century, additional fortifications were removed to make room for trams and accommodate modern urban traffic flows.
The gate remains a natural gathering spot where locals and visitors transition between the modern city and medieval streets. It marks where shopping districts meet narrow cobblestone passages, embodying the daily overlap between new and old Tallinn.
The gate is easy to reach from the shopping street and opens into the Old Town area, serving as a clear orientation point. It remains well accessible, functioning as a natural thoroughfare where paths before and after stay mostly level.
The two preserved towers were part of an original network of 46 defense towers, of which only 26 remain visible today. These numbers reveal how extensive the medieval fortification was and how much has been lost since the Renaissance.
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