Gate of Saint Sebastian

Brief information

The Appian Way began at these gates, so in antiquity they were called Porta Appia. Later the name changed: pilgrims set out from here along the same road to the Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura and the catacombs of Saint Sebastian, and the gates came to be associated with this route instead.

What matters about them is not only their antiquity, but their preserved role as a boundary node. The gates were part of the Aurelian Wall and remain the largest and best-preserved city gates of ancient Rome. Their history can be read through their form: a structure through which a road passed gradually came to look increasingly defensive.

What to notice first

It makes sense to compare several details as traces of reconstruction. Originally the gates were a low structure with two passages, but in the 5th century, for security reasons, they were made three stories high and only one passage was left. This change clearly explains why, in describing the gates, not only their size matters, but also the narrowing of the entrance: the roadway became easier to control.

The same principle is visible in the added towers and battlements. The towers reinforced the side parts of the gates, while the battlements turned the top into a defensive line. If you look at the gates as the beginning of a road, they appear as an urban boundary; if you take the later reconstruction into account, the same form reads instead as a fortification that was meant not merely to let people pass, but to protect the entrance to Rome.