Coordinates | 41°52′36.02″N12°28′53.29″E / 41.8766722°N 12.4814694°E |
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The Porta San Paolo (English: Saint Paul Gate) is one of the southern gates in the 3rd-century Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. The Via Ostiense Museum (museo della Via Ostiense) is housed within the gatehouse. [1] It is in the Ostiense quarter; just to the west is the Roman Pyramid of Cestius, an Egyptian-style pyramid, and beyond that is the Protestant Cemetery.
The original name of the gate was Porta Ostiensis, as it was located at the beginning of via Ostiense, the road that connected Rome and Ostia. Via Ostiense was an important arterial road, as evidenced by the fact that upon entering the gate of the same name, the road split, with one direction leading to the famous Emporium, the great market of Rome.
The gatehouse is flanked by two cylindrical towers, and has two entrances, which had been covered by a second, single-opening gate, built in front of the first by the Byzantine general Belisarius (530s–540s).
The structure is due to Maxentius, in the 4th century, but the two towers were heightened by Honorius. Its original—Latin—name was Porta Ostiensis, since it opened on the way to Ostia. Later, it was renamed to the Italian Porta San Paolo, because it was the exit of Rome that led to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
In 549, Rome was under siege; the Ostrogoths of Totila entered through this gate, because of the treason of the Isaurian garrison.
On 10 September 1943, two days after the armistice between the Allies and Italy had been agreed, Italian military and civil forces tried to block German seizure of the city, with 570 casualties.
The pyramid of Cestius is an ancient Roman Egyptian-style pyramid in Rome, Italy, near the Porta San Paolo and the Protestant Cemetery. It was built as a tomb for Gaius Cestius, a member of the Epulones religious corporation. It stands at a fork between two ancient roads, the Via Ostiensis and another road that ran west to the Tiber along the approximate line of the modern Via Marmorata. Due to its incorporation into the city's fortifications, it is today one of the best-preserved ancient buildings in Rome.
The Servian Wall is an ancient Roman defensive barrier constructed around the city of Rome in the early 4th century BC. The wall was built of volcanic tuff and was up to 10 m (33 ft) in height in places, 3.6 m (12 ft) wide at its base, 11 km (6.8 mi) long, and is believed to have had 16 main gates, of which only one or two have survived, and enclosed a total area of 246 hectares. In the 3rd century AD it was superseded by the construction of the larger Aurelian Walls as the city of Rome grew beyond the boundary of the Servian Wall.
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.
Testaccio is the 20th rione of Rome, Italy, identified by the initials R. XX, deriving its name from Monte Testaccio. It is located within the Municipio I.
The Via Laurentina is the name born by an ancient and a modern road of Italy, both leading southwards from Rome.
The Via Ostiensis was an important road in ancient Rome. It ran west 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the city of Rome to its important sea port of Ostia Antica, from which it took its name. The road began near the Forum Boarium, ran between the Aventine Hill and the Tiber River along its left (eastern) bank, and left the city's Servian Walls through the Porta Trigemina. When the later Aurelian Walls were built, the road left the city through the Porta Ostiensis. In the Late Roman Empire, trade suffered under an economic crisis, and Ostia declined as an important port. With the accompanying growth of importance of the Via Portuensis from the time of Constantine onwards, that of the Via Ostiensis correspondingly decreased. Modern Via Ostiense, following a similar path, is the main connection of Rome to Ostia together with the Via del Mare. On its way to Ostia, the road passes by the important basilica of Saint Paul Outside the 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.
The Porta San Sebastiano is the largest and one of the best-preserved gates passing through the Aurelian Walls in Rome (Italy).
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.
Porta Portese is an ancient city gate, located at the end of Via Portuense, where it meets Via Porta Portese, about a block from the banks of the Tiber in the southern edge of the Rione Trastevere of Rome, Italy.
Porta San Giovanni is a gate in the Aurelian Wall of Rome, Italy, named after the nearby Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.
The Porta Asinaria is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome. Dominated by two protruding tower blocks and associated guard rooms, it was built between 271 and 275 AD, at the same time as the Wall itself. It was not rebuilt or fortified in the time of Honorius and not restored by Theoderic as most of the other gates.
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.
Piramide is a station on Line B of the Rome Metro. It was opened on 10 February 1955 and is sited on Piazzale Ostiense just outside Porta San Paolo, in the Ostiense quarter. Its atrium houses mosaics that have won the Artemetro Roma by Enrico Castellani (Italy) and Beverly Pepper. The station has escalators.
Roma Porta San Paolo is the terminal train station of the Rome–Lido railway line in Rome (Italy). The station is connected to the station Piramide of the metro and to the Roma Ostiense railway station of the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. It has six tracks.
Via Cristoforo Colombo is a street in Rome (Italy) that links the historic centre to Ostia. Along most of its route, the street has three lanes for each direction of movement. With its 27 kilometres (17 mi) length it is the longest Italian road among those included within the borders of a single municipality and, in several stretches, the largest in Italy.
Ostiense is the 10th quartiere of Rome, identified by the initials Q. X.
Porta Ardeatina was one of the gates of the Aurelian Walls in Rome (Italy).
Media related to Porta San Paolo (Rome) at Wikimedia Commons
Preceded by Porta San Pancrazio | Landmarks of Rome Porta San Paolo | Succeeded by Porta San Giovanni |