A picture of a devil's legend

The Holy Gate once also bore a painting of a devil handing an old woman shoes hung from a stick. The tale behind it is still known. A cobbler lived near the gate with his young wife; they loved each other and were happy. This infuriated the devil, who resolved to spoil their happiness. He sent an old woman to set them quarrelling, promising her a pair of new shoes. As the saying goes, ‘Where the devil cannot go, he sends an old woman.’ She succeeded, but the devil feared her so much that he gave her the promised shoes on a stick. Another saying has it that ‘an old woman can cheat even the devil’.