The Gates of Barovia

“The fog spills out of the forest to swallow up the road behind you. Ahead, jutting from the impenetrable woods on both sides of the road, are high stone buttresses looming gray in the fog. Huge iron gates hang on the stonework. Dew clings with cold tenacity to the rusted bars. Two headless statues of armed guardians flank the gate, their heads now lying among the weeds at their feet. They greet you only with silence.”

There are two sets of gates on the Old Svalich Road in the valley of Barovia. Each is flanked by tall stone buttresses that extend into the Svalich Woods on either side of the road to where the mountainous terrain renders them unnecessary, as it is impassable. One set of these gates guards the eastern end of the valley, roughly 13 miles east of the village of Barovia. The other set is just north of the Tser Falls nearly 50 miles along the Old Svalich Road west of the village.