Porta San Giovanni (Rome)

Italy / Lazio / Rome / Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano
 gate, gateway, wall(s), city gate

Porta San Giovanni is a gate in the Aurelian Wall of Rome, Italy, named after the nearby Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano.
It is made up of a single grand arch built for pope Gregory XIII in "opera forse" by Giacomo della Porta or, more probably, Giacomo del Duca, who had collaborated with Michelangelo on the Porta Pia. The confusion is because the chronology of the era merely speaks of a famous architect called Giacomo. Popular tradition insists the architect was Della Porta, for he died in crowds at the gate "which he had built" of violent indigestion brought on by melons and watermelons, returning from a trip to the Castelli Romani.

Inaugurated in 1574, it had been necessitated by the reorganization of the whole Lateran area to facilitate traffic to and from southern Italy.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   41°53'9"N   12°30'33"E
This article was last modified 5 years ago