In the old part of the city the doors to all the buildings are massive, like eight feet tall. The big doors typically remain closed and people access the buildings through a smaller door built into one of the bigger doors. Historically the smaller doors were used by servants and the big doors would be grandly opened when you really wanted to make an impression on your guests. The strange thing is though, the smaller doors are pretty small. The restaurant we went to the first night we were in town, La Vitrola, had a little door. I'm 5'7", which is not too tall, and even I had to duck to get in. Maybe the servants were all indigenous people, who tend to be smaller? I'm not sure.
The doors are gorgeous, but the knockers are also really interesting. I did a little digging and it turns out the door knocker denoted the principal trade of the family who lived in the home. (fish = merchant, lion = teacher, etc.). When you arrived at the home and actually used the knocker, the number of times you knock with it depended on how well you know the person. One knock would be if the person was a stranger, all the way up to four knocks for a really good friend.
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