Town walls and gates

By the seventh century AD, Rovinj was already surrounded by town walls, and later strengthened by the construction of towers. The old town had seven gates, while three still exist today: the Saint Benedict Gate, the Portico and the Holy Cross Gate. A baroque archway called "Balbijev luk", which today serves as the entrance into the old town, was built on the site of the former outer gate in the seventeenth century.