Micklegate Bar

Micklegate Bar is the most important of York’s gateways and has acted as the focus for various important events, such as greeting a monarch on a royal visit and to display the severed heads of traitors. The earliest surviving piece of the present gateway was built in the earliest 12th century, but there has been a gateway hereabouts since the Roman period. Roman stonework and even Roman coffins were reused by the medieval builders in its construction. In 1350 the gatehouse was heightened to include a portcullis and a barbican, an outer passageway defending the main gate, was also added at this time. There were people living over the bar as early as 1196 and the last resident left in 1918.

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