1575 Gonville and Caius College Gate of Honour

Gonville and Caius College Gate of Honour, South side

This is one of the three gates in the College conceived by Dr Caius: Humility, Virtue and Honour. This is the gate through which the student would pass on his way to the Old Schools to graduate. It was built according to Cauis' designs after his death, and was completed in 1575.

All in all, a fun and bijou piece of architecture, small and exquisitely executed, with many detailed motifs. Originally the whole structure was brightly coloured and guilded, which would have further emphasised its jewel-like nature.

Since Pevsner described it, and since it was photographed for the Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge, it has had its obelisks replaced (on the four corners above the lower storey), and has had sundials remounted on its cupola. The bulbous nature of the typically Elizabethan cupola commented on by Pevsner is less obvious when furnished with sundials.

Clearly the Gate has many Classical features, with many ideas apparantly being take from Serlio's L'Archittetura, but it is not nearly as pure as the Gate of Virtue. The more obvious non-Classical features are the four-centred arch, Gothic vaulting in the entrance, and the cupola. The flat headed niches on the ground-storey seem to mimic windows in Serlio's drawings (see the Serlio plates reproduced in Ray). But with the window arches moved above the circular features on the North side, and omitted completely on the South side.

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