Pfaffenpforte (North Gate)

The North Gate was a mighty, tunnel-like structure: the central passage was over 11 metres long, around 5.60 metres wide and designed for wagons as well as entire troop units. Two narrower side passages, each 1.90 metres wide, were reserved for pedestrians. The gate was built from Roman lime mortar and dressed stone of basalt, trachyte, greywacke and limestone; reconstructed, it reached a height of 27.50 metres up to the ridge of the roof.

The central arch spanning the gate could be reconstructed. In the 3rd century, the letters CCAA (Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium) were subsequently chiselled into the archivolt on its northern side. Fluted pilasters framed the passages, remains of which are still visible on the surviving side gate. A groove on the western side of the gate remnant shows where the portcullis of the central passage hung – evidence that the gate had two storeys. Officially it was called "Porta clericorum" or "Porta paphia", the latter pointing to a veneration of the goddess Venus.

As early as around 1076 the gate was built over with a solarium – a sun terrace with an oriel window – and the adjoining medieval cathedral deanery altered it further over the centuries; renovations are documented for 1606, 1616 and 1621. The North Gate remained largely intact until 1657, with the central arch continuing to serve as a passageway, though no longer as a city entrance. As the surroundings of the cathedral were cleared and the street Unter Fettenhennen was widened, the structure was demolished from 1826 onwards.

A surviving part of the gate stands as a replica on the Domplatte, right next to Cologne Cathedral, giving a sense of the scale of the Roman structure. The associated original fragments are shown in the nearby Roman-Germanic Museum. The foundations of the North Gate have survived to this day at their original location – they now lie in the underground car park beneath the Domplatte.