The Florian Gate dates from around 1300 and is the only survivor of the city’s eight gates. It escaped the demolition of the walls in the 1820s thanks to Feliks Radwański, who argued that removing it would expose residents to draughts and disease.
A stretch of wall survived with it, along with three towers, each once maintained by a different craft guild: the carpenters, the joiners and the passementerie makers. Outside stands the Barbican, once linked to the gate by a fortified neck that no longer exists.
The Royal Route begins here, the road by which monarchs entered the city. For decades the wall beside the gate has served as an open-air picture gallery.