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This image is a jpeg digital photograph of the porte d'Arras (the gate to the road toward Arras), located on the western side of the French city of Douai (département du Nord, near the Belgian border) - see the map below indicating the location of the porte. Initially constructed between 1320 and 1330, this photograph shows all that is left of one of Douai's two surviving gates - the porte is now on a traffic island. The rest of the town's fortifications were dismantled in 1892.

To give a sense of scale, each of the two towers is 8.4 meters in diameter. Note the slits in the towers and above the gate which allowed archers or crossbowmen to defend the bridge approaching the gate.

Why this image? First, as you can see from my Research interests, I am fascinated by siege warfare. And although my focus is on the early modern period (especially the War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1714), I love the cartoonish nature of medieval illuminations (as you can see from my other pages), so choosing yet another medieval example from the 14th century seemed in keeping with the design theme. And of course passing through a gate to enter the Gateway to the Early Modern World is pure genius! As for why Douai, I spent a month in Douai in the winter of 1997 doing dissertation research in its municipal archives on the Allied siege of the town in 1710.

The photograph was taken by my parents on their visit to Douai in 1999. I have slightly manipulated the image's colors in Corel PhotoPaint. In the original photograph you could almost see the boarding house I stayed in through the gate itself.

Bibliography: For a survey of the fortifications of Douai, see Etienne Louis, Mille ans de fortifications à Douai IXème - XIXème siècle (Musée de Douai, 1997). On the porte d'Arras, pp. 16-17, 19.