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A gatehouse is a building that contains the entrance to a large structure or complex, such as a walled town, castle, manor, monastery or academic college, enabling the entrance to be controlled or defended by the inhabitants. Gatehouses are often the most heavily defended section of a fortification, as the gate was the easiest point for an enemy to attack. Fortified gates or gateways appear in the Bronze Age and reach into the modern times.^[1] There are numerous surviving examples around the world, especially from medieval Europe.

Gatehouses made their first appearance in the early antiquity, when it became necessary to enclose settlements with defences. Famous early examples of such gates include the Ishtar Gate in Babylon. The Romans built fortifications with gatehouses throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, such as the Porta San Paolo in the Aurelian Walls of Rome and the Porta Nigra at Trier in Germany.

Strongly fortified medieval gatehouses may include a drawbridge, one or more portcullises, machicolations, arrow loops and murder-holes where stones would be dropped on attackers. In some castles, the gatehouse was so strongly fortified it took on the function of a keep, sometimes referred to as a "gatehouse keep". In the late Middle Ages, some of these arrow loops might have been converted into gun loops (or gun ports). A very large French gatehouse might be called a châtelet (small castle). Medieval urban defences also incorporated gatehouses, such as Monnow Bridge in Monmouth. York has four important gatehouses, known as "Bars", in its city walls including the Micklegate Bar.

At the end of the Middle Ages, many gatehouses in England and France were converted into beautiful, grand entrance structures to manor houses or estates. Many of them became a separate feature, free-standing or attached to the manor or mansion only by an enclosing wall. By this time, the gatehouse had lost its defensive purpose and had become more of a monumental structure designed to harmonise with the manor or mansion.

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  The Ishtar Gate, Babylon
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  The Beulé Gate to the Acropolis, Athens
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  The Porta Nigra, Trier
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  The gatehouse of Lorsch Abbey, Germany
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  The Golden Gate of Kyiv
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  Horseshoe-shaped Puerta del Sol, Toledo
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  Single-towered gatehouse of Prudhoe Castle, with barbican and chapel over the passage
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  Early twin-towered gatehouse at Dover Castle: the Palace Gate, formerly with a barbican.
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  Exterior of gatehouse-keep at Tonbridge Castle
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  Interior of gatehouse-keep at Harlech Castle (1283-89)
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  Tudor display gatehouse at Layer Marney Tower
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  Timber-framed vernacular gatehouse in Ober-Bessingen, Lich, Germany
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  Ganesh Pol, one of seven gates of the Amber Fort, India
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  Kankaimon, the outer gatehouse of Shuri Castle, Japan
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  The 19th century Barbican Gate, Glenarm Castle, Northern Ireland

• Barbican
• Bridge castle
• City gate
• Guardhouse
• Gate
• Gatekeeper's lodge
• Pend