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Porta San Paolo

Historic site · San Saba, Italy

A gate of the Aurelian Walls, and the point the via Ostiense began from. The Sovrintendenza Capitolina records that two gates originally flanked the Pyramid of Cestius, built to ease traffic between the city and the port of Ostia, and that the western one, running towards the granaries of the Marmorata on the Tiber bank, was closed as the via Portuense took over and was demolished in 1888. The surviving gate's Roman name was Porta Ostiensis; it was renamed for the road out to San Paolo fuori le Mura. Inside it, in the Castelletto, is the Museo della Via Ostiense.

History

Between 401 and 403 Honorius restructured the gate, keeping a single entrance fornix and reinforcing and raising the two flanking towers, giving them merlons and windows. A restoration under Benedict XIV in 1749 took in the whole Roman circuit from Porta San Paolo to Porta Flaminia, and is recorded by a commemorative inscription on the eastern tower. Around 1920 the gate was isolated from the Aurelian Walls to ease traffic on its eastern side, and a bombing in the Second World War destroyed the western stretch of wall that linked it to the Pyramid. The Sovrintendenza Capitolina records that on 10 September 1943 Porta San Paolo was the scene of the last attempt by the Italian army and Roman civilians to prevent the German occupation of Rome.

Visit

Via Raffaele Persichetti, 00153 Roma RM

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