Neutor

The Neutor was a historic city gate in Graz, standing from 1620 until its removal in 1883. It marked the entrance to the Kälberne Viertel, a district once outside the medieval walls. The gate took its name from the slaughterhouses that gave the area its title. Located at the junction of Kalcherberggasse and Neutorgasse, it once controlled access to the city’s south-western expansion. The structure began as a modest gatehouse before growing into a two-storey, inhabited building with a roughly square footprint.

The gate’s later history saw classical changes. By the 1780s or 1790s, its outer face wore a classical facade with ribbon-like decoration. Inside, three arched openings allowed passage: a main rusticated portal, a smaller central one, and a blocked stone doorway. A distinctive S-bend in the passageway made entry difficult for wagons. The site also bordered a botanical garden east of the gate and the Neutorbastei bastion with its Meran garden and inn to the west.

Today, only foundations remain beneath Neutorgasse, uncovered during 2023 tramway works. Archaeologists recorded and measured the remains before they were removed for new construction. The gate’s brief reappearance recalls Graz’s layered past and the vanished defences of the old city. Its rediscovery offers a quiet reminder of how urban growth erases earlier landmarks.