Amboise Gate

Today this is the only access to the medieval town from the west, as well as one of the most complex positions of the Hospitaller fortifications. Its strategic importance was partly due to the proximity of the Palace of the Grand Master, the administrative centre of the Order of the Hospital, at the northwest corner of the walled town. Three bridges span three successive moats, while three fortified embankments and the Palace itself contributed to the defense. The innermost fortified elements are also the oldest.

The actual Amboise Gate stands at the east end of a stone bridge with three arches spanning the outer moat, at this point 38 metres wide. The gate is set in a massive fortified embankment originally built by grand master Aubusson between 1489 and 1503 and commemorated by the inscription Frater Petrus d'Aubusson cardinalis et magister erexerat. According to another inscription set in the masonry, the north part of this embankment collapsed and was rebuilt in 1514 by a later master, Fabrizio del Carretto: Frater Fabricius de Carretto magister collapsam a fundamentis restituit. Over the gate is set a marble slab with an angel in low relief holding shields with the arms of the Order of the Hospital and grand master Emery d'Amboise, accompanied by his name and the date 1512. The gate was secured by a drawbridge and protected by a gatehouse with two round towers enclosing rooms at two levels. The first section of the passage leading to the interior of the town is barrel-vaulted, and on either side open the doors of the ground-level rooms of the gatehouse. This passage is S-shaped for defensive reasons and leads to a bridge crossing a second, inner moat 17 metres wide. A second gate, also originally furnished with a drawbridge, leads to a second fortified embankment 85 metres long. This gate, older than the outer gate by about half a century, preserves interesting features, including

• a small battery built into the foot of the bridge, to provide covering fire at the level of the moat
• a perron to facilitate mounting and dismounting and
• a guardroom

The embankment to which the gate belongs is  the work of grand master Jean de Lastic (1437-54) and flanks the west face of the Palace, from which it is divided by a third stretch of moat. It gives access to two further gates. One of them, known as the Master's Gate, is at the north end, at the back of an older, five-sided bulwark built by grand master Antoni Fluvian (1421-37) and joined to the Lastic embankment; it leads to the Palace Bastion. The other is the Gate of St. Anthony, at the south end of the embankment,  which leads to the interior of the medieval town.

In 1522 Amboise Gate was the point where the post of the Knights of the tongue of France ended and the post of the German tongue began.