St. Athanasios Gate was protected from the west by the tall, round and solid Tower of the Virgin. The Koskinou or St. John Gate, or Red Door, as it was called by the Franks in the Middle Ages and indeed still is by the locals, is a complex and sturdy fortification, not unlike the St. Athanasios Gate. The next gate is opened where the Melina Merkouri square is today and it’s called the Acadia Gate.

The circular Tower of Italy or of F. del Carretto was originally one of the city gates. It was closed in around the year 1480 and converted into mighty bastion. The St. Catherine Gate led directly from the Jewish quarter to the Mole of Windmills. Opened obliquely into the wall and not frontally, it was closed by a portcullis and above that was a machicolation. Another gate between the Sea Gate and St. Catherine’s Gate is the “Gate of Our Lady” (Pyli Panayias). Totally, the gates around the medieval walls today are 12.

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