The Golden Gate was one of main entrance of the city.
This extremely rare specimen of Russian military architecture dates back to the twelfth century. It was built in 1164 after the construction of an impressive line of earth ramparts around the New Town. Its present form differs considerably from its original appearance. Evidently the gates were first damaged when the Mongols seized the town in 1238. The little Church above the gateway was rebuilt in 1469 by the famous Russian architect, Vasiliy D. Yermolin. The gates were again seriously damaged during the Polish invasion at the beginning of the seventeenth century and were not repaired until the end of the century when the cities fortifications were being restored. They underwent their final transformation at the end of the eighteenth century. In 1785 the earth ramparts which adjoined the Gates on either side were removed and buttresses were added to the four corners surrounded by circular bastions. Residential accommodation was built between the two bastions on the north side of the gateway, and a new flight of steps was erected between the two on the south side. The dilapidated main archway was rebuilt with a new Church above it made of brick.
Thus all that remains of the original building are its two strong walls of white stone and semicircular platform. These two walls were built according to the traditional Vladimir method of erecting two parallel partitions of beautifully processed white stone and filling the intervening space with rubble over which a highly concentrated lime solution was poured to form a setting. A more light material - porous tufa - was used for the arches. Over the centuries the walls of the gates have sunk about five feet into the ground. The original building must, therefore, have been even taller and more graceful.
The gates were adjoined on either side by high earth ramparts topped by protective wooden walls. Deep curved recesses were carved in the walls of the gateway at the point, where they joined the earth ramparts and traces of these can still be seen above the buildings which were added later. The earth ramparts were about thirty feet high and seventy-eight feet wide at the base. On the outside they were protected by a moat twenty-five feet deep and up to seventy feet wide. Traces of the ramparts and moat can be seen south of the Golden Gate in Kozlov Val. Then as now the passageway through the Golden Gate was covered by an enormous semicircular vault on stilted arches supported by flat pilasters crowned by strictly utilitarian imposts.
The height of the arched gateway made it extremely difficult to defend. For this reason an arched cross-piece was added about half way up into which the enormous oak gates fitted. The outside of the oak gates was covered with sheets of gilded copper which were probably also damascened to make them look like the Golden Gate of the Vladimir and Suzdal Cathedrals. It was these magnificent gates that gave the whole edifice its name - the Golden Gate. Their huge iron hinges can still be seen on either side of the archway, as well as the deep groove for the thick bolt shaft. The "Lay of the Miracles Wrought by the Icon of Holy Virgin Mary of Vladimir" which was written at the time when the Gates were erected describes how the people of Vladimir gathered to admire the building and the heavy oak gates, whose hinges had not had time to settle in the masonry (stone laying), collapsed on the crowd crushing twelve people to death.
In order to defend the approaches to the gates, a wooden platform was constructed on a level with the arched cross-piece, resting on joists inserted into special large square sockets in the walls. The small square sockets that can be observed here were used to support the scaffolding when the building was being put up. The platform covered the whole of the archway and was used to shower arrows, stones and boiling water on the heads of the enemy. The first flight of the stone steps with a spreading vault ceiling in the south wall led up to an archway onto the platform. The strange inscriptions and crosses scratched on the walls of the archway date back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. There was probably a similar archway on the opposite side leading from the steps onto the town ramparts. The upper flight of steps led to another defensive platform surrounded by an indented parapet roughly on a level with the present windows. In the middle of this platform was the tiny Church of the Deposition of the Robe with a single shining dome of gilded copper.
The Golden Gate were undoubtedly erected by local builders who had developed their skills in the period of intense architectural activity which began in 1158 in Vladimir and Rostov. The prince's seal is carved on one of the stones in the south recess indicating that the craftsmen were his own subjects. Towards the end of his life Prince Andrei conceived the idea of sending the craftsmen who had built the Golden Gate to erect a magnificent Church in Kiev in the great Yaroslav palace complex in honour of the Vladimir lands. Vladimir's Golden Gate have no exact equivalent in mediaeval European architecture where we find gate towers built for defensive purposes only. As well as being a fortified entrance to the town they fulfilled the role of a triumphal arch leading from the Kiev road into the capital's main street and the residential quarter of the prince and the nobility. This explains the great height of the edifice, the grace and splendour of the arched entrance, and the gilded copper on the huge wooden gates and the dome of the Church above the gateway. In this respect the Vladimir Golden Gate resemble those of Constantinople which also led onto the main street, and even more so those of Kiev leading to the Cathedral of Saint Sophia and the group of monasteries founded by Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise. In the Vladimir Golden Gate we have an excellent example of the impressive, dignified architecture typical of the reign of Andrei Bogolyubsky, reflecting his desire to enhance and consolidate the importance of his new capital and prove it to be the equal of Kiev "the mother of Russian cities" and Constantinople "the Rome of the East".
The Golden Gate of Vladimir also proved their worth as part of the cities fortifications. When the Mongols were besieging the town in 1238 they never once attempted to breach the main gates. Instead they used a battering ram to break through the town walls to the south of the gates opposite the Church of Our Saviour.