St. Mary`s Gate (Sztumska) in Malbork

It was one of the elements of a system allowing for the communication with the city from the south. In front of the gate there was a moat, and in later years there was built a porch and the second line of city walls. In the early 19^th century there had been mentioned the need to dismantle the medieval defense system and, therefore, in 1807 the French occupying the ruins of the city closed down the remains of the outer gate of St. Mary, in which there was once a chapel. On February 7, 1838 the fire destroyed the roof of the gate. It was not reconstructed in its old form, and its crowning became a small, half-timber superstructure on a square plan, covered with a hipped roof. In the years 1936-1937, a new hipped roof covered with ceramic tiles was constructed, designed by a master builder Paul Dombert. In 1945 the gate was burned and the walls damaged by bullets. During the restoration in 1964 neither a gate superstructure nor the hipped roof were reconstructed. For many years the gate was not used. It was in the 70’s that inside in the gate was set up a cafe, which required adaptation works inside the building and designing the external steps. Dangerous fire in the early 80s caused a lot of damage inside the building causing the significant weakening of the walls of the gate.