Porta Urbica known as Porta Maggiore

The Porta urbica known as Porta Maggiore is located on Via del Colle (continuation of Via San Valerio).

This is the most important gate of the Tiburtine wall of the classical period, made of parallelepiped blocks of travertine in the section of wall belonging to the wall itself.

According to the reconstruction deduced from sources and archaeological findings, the first urban circle started from this gate, followed the road for a stretch then folded back to the S-E, near the so-called Mercato Coperto; it continued along Via Postera, as far as the Posterula known in the Middle Ages as St. Pantaleone’s, located near the Church of S. Pietro alla Carità. From here the walls passed through Piazza dell’Annunziata, where another gate opened, and then to Piazza del Governo, the remains of which are visible in the structure of the San Bernardino Municipal Palace. Heading eastward the line traveled along a section of Via Palatina, near the Palazzo Sabucci, descended along Via dei Sosii, where a gate probably opened (evidenced by the name of the vanished church of S. Maria della Porta), and flanking the Aniene reached Piazza Rivarola, where another, anonymous gate was located. From here it reached the Acropolis and by the Round Temple the Porta Variana must have opened. In this area, in spite of natural defenses, the walls surrounded the Acropolis, leaving a posterula for passage to the area below (known as “inter duos lucos“); heading toward the Porta Maggiore on Via del Colle, they passed through the Piazzetta di Vesta, where there was a posterula, and from the Riserraglio they reached Piazza D. Tani, where the Porta Esquilina was located, from which the final section that reconnected with the Porta Maggiore started.

The republican-age gate had a cataract closure that ran perpendicular to the road surface along guides carved into the travertine.