Not far from the Admiralty complex in the landscape area of the Catherine Park the ground begins to rise up to the artificial hill by the Tower Ruin. This is the location of the Gothic Gate that was cast in Yekaterinburg in 1777–78 to the design of Yury Velten. The architect found the pattern for the gate in an English album Gothic Decorative Architecture that had been known in Russia since the 1760s.
The work to install the gate began in 1779, when trenches were dug and the foundations laid. In 1780 twenty-five tonnes of iron castings were delivered to Tsarskoye Selo. Over the course of the summer that year the gate was assembled and set in place.
The hexagonal pedestals of the gates are embellished with panels of Gothic ornament. Tall six-lobed pillars form open-work piers that are linked by a “Gothic” arch. Cast-iron sculptural figures placed between the pillars complete the decoration of the gate – a remarkable example of Russian icon-casting from the eighteenth century.