It is one of the few and very valuable examples of a Gothic town gate preserved in relatively unaltered form.

Historia

In the early In 14th century Bystrzyca Kłodzka was surrounded by a single perimeter of city walls erected at the alderman’s expense. Three gates were built within the perimeter of city walls, including the Water Gate in 14th-15th century, on the axis of the road to Międzylesie, now Podmiejska Street. In 1730s the gate was crenellated and covered with a pyramidal, polygonal helmet. Prior to 1900 – it was not plastered. It had only a plastered brick helmet, which was replaced with a new one in 1960. The gate was renovated in 2013, and its current appearance is partly a new creation. A timber frame bay window was added to the side façade. Gargoyles were introduced in the upper part of the façade. A portcullis is suspended in the blind window in the southwest elevation. In the gate passage there are double wooden gates.

Opis

The Water Gate is stone-built, with an upper section of brick, with superstructure or re-built. It was built on a square plan as a three-storey building, topped with a crenellation, covered with a flat roof with a pyramidal, polygonal, brick, plastered cupola. At the ground floor of the gate there is a gate passage with pointed-arch openings, covered with a pointed-arch barrel vault. To the northeastern façade of the tower, from the side of the town, there is a stone, two-legged, broken staircase added, the upper flight of which is suspended above the gate. The staircase is bounded by a full stone balustrade. At the first floor level there is a Gothic portal. The southwestern façade of the tower is decorated with a high blind window of semicircular arches framed by ashlar. The openings of the passage in both façades are reinforced with stone frames made of ashlars. Rectangular windows in the facades, including slotted windows, have stone frames.

The site is accessible all year round.

Compiled by Iwona Rybka-Ceglecka, The Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Wrocław, 14 December 2015.