Stone Gate (Kamenita Vrata)

Last surviving medieval gate of the Upper Town, with a famous shrine

The Stone Gate is the only surviving original entry to the medieval Upper Town: a vaulted stone passage cut through the city wall in the 13th century, with cobbles worn smooth by eight centuries of footfall. Walk through it from Radićeva Street and you pass through a small chapel built into the gate itself, where the Madonna of the Stone Gate hangs behind a 19th-century wrought-iron grille.

The walls around the painting are lined with thousands of stone plaques inscribed hvala (thank you), left by pilgrims fulfilling vows. People kneel in the passage and light candles on the small benches; you can rest a minute and then continue out the other side into the Upper Town. The shrine is open all day.

things to do sight gornji grad
A story
In 1731 a fire destroyed all the wooden parts of the gate, but a painting of the Virgin Mary hanging inside survived undamaged. Zagrebans took it as a miracle; the painting now sits in a small chapel behind a wrought-iron grille set into the gate's passage, and pilgrims come daily to light candles and leave inscribed thank-you plaques on the surrounding walls.

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