1567 Gonville and Caius College Gate of Virtue

Gonville and Caius College Gate of Virtue, West side

One of the few English examples from this time of a pure Renaisance style, on its East side at least. Most previous allusions to the Renaissance in English architecture merely used motifs as fashionable ornament.

[Thumbnail image of Gonville and Caius College Gate of Virtue, East side]
Gonville and Caius College Gate of Virtue, East side

The East side has a central semi-circular arch, three bays and three storeys of superimposed orders. The West is more restrained, framing its four-centred arch with two ionic pilasters.

This is one of the three gates in the College conceived by Dr Caius: Humility, Virtue and Honour. The Gate of Virtue is the second gate of the student's symbolic passage through the College.

The more popular Gate of Honour, leading from the College to Senate House Passage is not so pure, with its four-centred arch and a typically Elizabethan bulbous cupola. The Gate of Humility now stands in the Master's Garden (the entrance to the College from Tinity Street has the inscription 'Humilitas' but is not the original Gate of Humility).

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