I’ve always been intrigued by the beautiful old doors I see during my walks through European neighborhoods, most appear to have been hung for ages. Many are impenetrable, locked and bolted; many display colorful knockers, what is the story behind an apparently abandoned entrance? There was once obvious care to these beautiful entrances and then… Did one of the residents die and leave an older person behind who never ventures out, are they as time worn as the facade? Who has the keys?

What stories do these doors hold behind the sealed entry?

Doors hold a special fascination; creating a first impression, they keep out intruders, they welcome guests and provide security and a sense of place. Doors provide a language of their own, sculpted panels, unique knockers, a slit for Cartes. Metal doors, glass doors, weathered and some highly polished and well cared for; doors made to impress and impact your  impression. In any event, doorways evoke local tradition and culture.

The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last. 

C. S. Lewis

Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else. Tom Stoppard

When one door closes, fortune will usually open another. Fernando De Rojas

You can’t knock on opportunity’s door and not be ready.   Bruno Mars

Be an opener of doors.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

So many people enter and leave your life! Hundreds of thousands of people! You have to keep the door open so they can come in! But it also means you have to let them go!   Jonathan Safran Foer

That door had a lot to say, people entered and people left but never the same! Jasleen Kaur Gumber

You suppose that you are the lock on the door. But you are the key that opens it.     Rumi  

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.” ― William Blake