Cikánská branka

The Cikánská branka is one of the smaller passages in the ring of fortifications around Olomouc. Gates of this kind were not grand ceremonial entrances but narrow openings, easy to defend, that allowed people to pass through the rampart and wall of the fortress town. They sit modestly in the masonry and are easily overlooked. Anyone who finds this one gains a sense of how tightly Olomouc was once enclosed by walls, bastions and earthworks, and how strictly every way in was controlled.