It was one of the three town gates. Its Mannerist elevation is topped with a low relief featuring a personification of Polonia sitting in a throne. On its sides there is an inscription in Latin, edited by Jan Zamoyski, which reads: “Welcome, Life-Giving Mother Poland! We should defend you not only with our walls but we should be ready to give you our blood and lives. Welcome, Mother Poland, Star of Nobleness and Freedom. Another inscription placed in a frieze divided with the Zamoyski family’s cartouche reads: “The gate was founded by Jan from Zamość, Chancellor and Great Hetman of the Kingdom of Poland, the chief commander of Polish army”.
The Old Lubelska Gate has been walled up since the very beginning. Some say that Jan Zamoyski ordered to do it to commemorate the fact that Austrian Archduke Maximilian the Second, a claimant to Polish throne, taken captive by the Hetman during a victorious battle of Byczyna was led through the gate in 1588. Others say that the gate impaired the defensive potential of the fortress. Be that as it may, after the gate was walled up road traffic from Lublin and Warsaw was taken over by the Szczebrzeska Gate and pedestrians had to use the non-existent Janowicka Wicket Gate.
At the end of the 18th century in order to improve the transportation system in the town the gate was opened. However, after the New Lubelska Gate was built the old gate was walled up again. The passage of the gate was opened and glazed during renovation work carried out between 2007 and 2009. Now the gate houses a restaurant and a gallery.
Adjacent to the Old Lubelska Gate there is a fragment of a curtain wall with a postern which joins the inside of the fortress to a caponier and a ravelin situated below.
