The Serrans Gate or Serranos Gate is one of the twelve gates that formed part of the ancient city wall, the Christian Wall (Muralla cristiana), of the city of Valencia, Spain. It was built in Valencian Gothic style at the end of the 14th century (between 1392 and 1398). Its name is probably due to its location in the northwest of the old city centre, making it the entry point for the royal road (camí ral) connecting Valencia with the comarca or district of Els Serrans (along the road going northwest towards the mountains around Teruel and eventually leading to Saragossa) as well as the entry point for the royal road to Barcelona, or because the majority of settlers near there in the time of James I of Aragon were from the area around Teruel, whose inhabitants were often called serrans (mountain people) by the Valencians. Alternatively, the gate may also have been named after an important family, the Serrans, who lived in a street with the same name.
Serrans Gate is an important landmark and one of the best preserved monuments of Valencia. The walls consist of very solid stone, as their main purpose was fortification. However, they are covered with a cladding of limestone, mainly from Alginet, a town near Valencia, in order to give the building a more luxurious, distinguished appearance.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.