The breach of Porta Pia, on the right, in a contemporaneous photograph following the Capture of Rome in 1870.
Porta Pia was one of the northern gates in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. One of Pope Pius IV's civic improvements to the city, it is named after him. Situated at the end of a new street, the Via Pia, it was designed by Michelangelo to replace the Porta Nomentana situated several hundred meters southwards, which was closed up at the same time. Construction began in 1561 and ended in 1565, after the artist's death. A 1561 bronze commemorative medal by Gian Federico Bonzagna[it] shows an early plan by Michelangelo, very different from his final design.[1] The façade on the outside of the city was completed in 1869 under the Neo-Classicist design by Virginio Vespignani.
A replacement was needed because of the new urban area, which could no longer provide access through the ancient Porta Nomentana for the Via Nomentana. According to Vasari, Michelangelo presented three different designs to the Pope, which were beautiful but too extravagant, and the Pope (perhaps not very convinced by certain details of the drawings) chose the cheapest of the three.[2] No trace survives of the three drawings (except for some sketches for certain details), nor is it certain that the work was actually carried out to the original plan. The present appearance underwent several changes: the designs depicted on a commemorative coin minted in 1561 and in an engraving of 1568 (the only documentation of this epoch) present the Porta Pia quite differently from how it appears today. Moreover, even forty years after its construction, the gate was shown on maps of Rome as almost like a ruin. In any case, the gate depicted on the coin appears to be the closest to the initial plan, although we cannot exclude the possibility that in the course of works some variations and reviews were made to the design and its details, remembering that the Pope chose the cheapest design. It was, however, Michelangelo's last architectural work – he died shortly before the work was completed. The work was carried out by Giacomo Del Duca, who also built Porta San Giovanni.
Most experts consider that Michelangelo was concerned with creating picturesque and dramatic facades to fulfill their important symbolic function as an entrance to Rome. The gate is further emphasized by his positioning of the portal at the end of strada Pia, which resumed the route of the ancient "Alta Semita". It then continues on the current Via XX Settembre, to conclude with an imposing frontal prospect a long straight front beginning at the Quirinal. For a more scenic effect, the gate was set slightly behind the line of the walls, which was connected with two lateral oblique sections of wall, overhung by the wall-ends of the gate, and had only one arch (as it appears on the medal) with the reverse facade facing the city, whereas on the outside was only a simple fornix.
A second arch was opened around 1575 to facilitate the transit of traffic, significantly increased by the closure of the nearby porta Nomentana, as stated on the inscription over the central arch:
PIVS IV PONT MAX
PORTAM PIAM
SVBLATA NOMENTANA EXTRVXIT
VIAM PIAM AEQVATA ALTA SEMITA DVXIT
The prints and engravings up to 1577 depict a tower on the outside of a gate – it is doubtful whether this was lost from the design due to a collapse or due to a lessening desire for architectural motifs.
The external facade was completed in 1869 to neoclassical plans by Virginio Vespignani, who seems to have been inspired by an engraving of 1568 to follow Michelangelo's original plans quite closely. Beginning in 1853 with a restoration due to damage from a lightning strike in 1851, the works also included the addition of new buildings and a courtyard. The new facade, in keeping with the city walls, houses two statues each in their own niche (in this case, of saints Agnes and Alexander, according to the will of Pius IX), flanked by four columns.[3] The Pope wanted a memorial to his escape from danger during the collapse of the audience chamber at the Sant'Agnese convent (near the gate) during his visit there on April 12, 1855. An inscription above the arch on the external side recorded this escape:
HIEROMARTYRIBVS MAGNIS ALEXANDRO PONT MAX AGNETI VIRG
QVORVM TROPAEIS VIA NOMENTANA NOBILITATVR
PIVS IX PONTIFEX MAXIMVS ANNO SACRI PRINC XXIII
PORTAM PIAM NOVIS OPERIBVS COMMVNITAM EXORNATAM DEDICAVIT
DECESSORI INVICTO SOSPITATRICI SVAE
IOSEPHO FERRARIO ANTISTITE VRBANO PRAEFECTO AERARI
It was through an artillery-opened breach in the wall a dozen metres to the west of the gate – known as the "Porta Pia breach" – that on September 20, 1870 Bersaglieri soldiers entered Rome and completed the unification of Italy. A marble and bronze Monument to the Porta Pia Breach is found at the spot where Italian artillery demolished the walls. Opposite the gate, on the external side, at the centre of the piazzale di Porta Pia, is the Monumento al Bersagliere, commissioned by Mussolini and erected in 1932 by Publio Morbiducci. The buildings between the two arches of the gate, once housing the customs office, are now the seat of the Historical Museum of the Bersaglieri, with the monumental tomb of Enrico Toti.
Here, on September 11, 1926, the antifascist activist Gino Lucetti threw a bomb against the car transporting Benito Mussolini, but without effect.
See also
Porta Pinciana– Gate of the Aurelian walls, a landmark of Rome, Italy
Pope Pius IV, born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1559 to his death in December 1565. Born in Milan, his family considered itself a branch of the House of Medici and used the same coat of arms. Although modern historians have found no proof of this connection, the Medici of Florence recognized the claims of the Medici of Milan in the early 16th century.
The Aurelian Walls are a line of city walls built between 271 AD and 275 AD in Rome, Italy, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Aurelian. They superseded the earlier Servian Wall built during the 4th century BC.
Via Nomentana is an ancient road of Italy, leading North-East from Rome to Nomentum, a distance of 23 km (14 mi). It originally bore the name "Via Ficulensis", from the old Latin village of Ficulea, about 13 km (8.1 mi) from Rome. It was subsequently extended to Nomentum, but never became an important high road, and merged in the Via Salaria a few kilometers beyond Nomentum. It is followed as far as Nomentum by the modern state road, but some traces of its pavement still exist.
Castro Pretorio is the 18th rione of Rome (Italy), identified by the initials R. XVIII, and it is located within the Municipio I. The rione takes its name by the ruins of the Castrum Praetorium, the barracks of the Praetorian Guard, included in the Aurelian Walls.
The Porta del Popolo, or Porta Flaminia, is a city gate of the Aurelian Walls of Rome that marks the border between Piazza del Popolo and Piazzale Flaminio.
Porta can refer to:
Porta Tiburtina or Porta San Lorenzo is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy, through which the Via Tiburtina exits the city.
Porta Salaria was a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. Constructed between 271 AD and 275 AD, it was demolished in 1921.
Porta San Pancrazio is one of the southern gates of the Aurelian walls in Rome, Italy.
Virginio Vespignani was an Italian architect.
Porta San Giovanni is a gate in the Aurelian Wall of Rome, Italy, named after the nearby Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.
Porta Settimiana is one of the gates of the Aurelian walls in Rome, Italy). It rises at the northern vertex of the rough triangle traced by the town walls, built by Emperor Aurelian in the 3rd century, in the area of Trastevere an up through the Janiculum.
The Porta Nomentana was one of the gates in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. It is located along viale del Policlinico, around 70 m east of Porta Pia. It is now blocked and merely a boundary wall for the British Embassy.
Porta Metronia is a gate in the third-century Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. The gate is located in the southern section of the wall between Porta San Giovanni to the east and Porta Latina to the south.
Porta Santo Spirito is one of the gates of the Leonine walls in Rome (Italy). It rises on the back side of the Hospital of the same name, in Via dei Penitenzieri, close to the crossing with Piazza della Rovere.
The Janiculum walls are a stretch of defensive walls erected in 1643 by Pope Urban VIII as a completion of the Leonine wall and for a better protection of the area of Rome rising on the right bank of the Tiber.
The Embassy of the United Kingdom in Rome is the chief diplomatic mission of the United Kingdom in Italy, San Marino and the Holy See. It is located on Via XX Settembre in Municipio I. The current British Ambassador to Italy is Edward Llewellyn. The British Embassy to the Holy See is located in a separate building within the same compound.
The Regio VI Alta Semita is the sixth regio of imperial Rome, under Augustus's administrative reform. Regio VI took its name from the street passing over the Quirinal Hill. It was a large regio that also encompassed the Viminal Hill, the lower slopes of the Pincian, and the valleys in-between.
La presa di Roma, also known as La breccia di Porta Pia or Bandiera bianca, and distributed in English-speaking countries under the title The Capture of Roma is a 1905 Italian short black-and-white silent film directed by Filoteo Alberini.
The Monument to the Bersagliere is a statuary monument located in Piazzale di Porta Pia, near the spot, where Italian soldiers were able to breach the city walls of Rome in 1870, thus leading to the integration of Rome into the Kingdom of Italy. The monument stands to the north of the gate, outside the walls. Attached to the gate buildings, designed by Michelangelo, that once represented Porta Pia, is a Museum of the History of the Bersaglieri, established here in 1921.
↑ Vasari: "At that time Michelangelo, engaged by the Pope for a design for the Porta Pia, made three, all of them extravagant and beautiful, of which the pope elected to realise the cheapest, as we see today built today, with great praise for him." ("Ricercato a questo tempo Michelagnolo dal Papa per Porta Pia d’un disegno, ne fece tre tutti stravaganti e bellissimi, che ‘l papa elesse per porre in opera quello di minore spesa, come si vede oggi murata, con molta sua lode.")
↑ These statues were seriously damaged in the bombardment of 1870 and, after long restoration, were relocated in 1929.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
