Porta Ardeatina


Porta Ardeatina was one of the gates of the Aurelian Walls in Rome.
It was placed in a halfway point between Porta Appia and Porta San Paolo, close to the modern arches under which Via Cristoforo Colombo runs.
The gate was probably locked very soon ; on the base of the present remains, it can arguably be classified as a simple postern, framed with travertine, whose most interesting characteristic is the presence, both inside and outside the wall, of a stretch of paved road dating from the Roman period, in which the tracks left by carts traffic - that should have been quite intense - are still visible.
The gate had no defensive towers: this lack was fixed by means of a projection of the wall, which could therefore serve as a little rampart.
According to a statement by the humanist and historian Poggio Bracciolini, Porta Ardeatina bore the usual memorial plate, commemorating the restoration carried out by Emperor Honorius in 401-403. This could indicate that it was not just a simple secondary passage, but a real single-arch gate.
Close to the gate, on the inner side, remains of a grave incorporated into the wall are visible: this is consistent with the project of Emperor Aurelian, who - in order to lessen the costs and speed up the building of the wall circle - integrated former structures within the wall itself.