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In 1390, Manuel II., with a small body of troops, entered the city by this gate and drove away his nephew John, who had usurped the throne.^[277] During the siege of 1453 the gate was defended by Manuel of Liguria with 200 men, and before it the Sultan planted a cannon and other engines of assault.^[278]

Between the second and third towers to the north of the Golden Gate is an entrance known at present, like the Porta Aurea, also by the name Yedi Koulè Kapoussi. Dr. Paspates thinks it is of Turkish origin.^[279] It has certainly undergone repair in Turkish times, as an inscription upon it in honour of Sultan Achmet III. testifies; but traces of Byzantine workmanship about the gate prove that it belongs to the period of the Empire;^[280] and this conclusion is supported by the consideration that, since the Porta Aurea was a State entrance, another gate was required in its immediate neighbourhood for the use of the public in this quarter of the capital. Hence the proximity of the two gateways.