Paulustor

The Paulustor stands in Graz’s Innere Stadt district, the only surviving wall gate of the late-Renaissance ring of defences. It sits at the end of Paulustorgasse, marking the edge of the old city where the medieval wall once ran. The gate was built between 1606 and 1614 by Hans Bertoletto as part of the new Paulustor suburb. Some sources place its completion between 1620 and 1625 alongside the third Sacktor. From 1823 to 1918 it served as a military prison before becoming part of the police barracks. The gate’s three-storey structure carries large round-arched passages flanked by smaller doorways, giving it a triumphal arch feel. Its eastern façade shows rusticated stonework influenced by Sebastiano Serlio’s city gate designs. Two sandstone cartouches above the arch bear the coats of arms of Archduke Ferdinand II and his mother Maria Anna of Bavaria, carved by Philibert Poccabello in 1606. Beneath them a Latin inscription in alternating lines explains the gate’s purpose: to protect the fatherland, repel enemies and preserve the memory of the two rulers. Inside, the wrought-iron grille above the portal dates from the building’s first years. The third floor still shows fragments of columned arcades. The second storey holds three banderole stucco ceilings made around 1730–35. The gate’s robust stone mass and classical details make it a clear landmark of Graz’s late-Renaissance defences.