The Porta Capuana is a Renaissance
city gate
A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. It is a type of fortified gateway.
Uses
City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods ...
in
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
, Italy, originally passing through the medieval city walls, of which two
bastion
A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...
s remain to the sides. The gate also gives its name to the zone, which is one of the ten boroughs of Naples. This zone being part of the
Fourth Municipality.
In spite of the name, the portal is not the ancient gateway to the ''decumanus maximus'', the main east-west road that once led out of Roman Naples to Capua. When the city was extended eastwards in the 15th century as part of the construction of the new Aragonese city walls, the original gate, which had been closer to the castle of the same name,
Castel Capuano
Castel Capuano is a castle in Naples, southern Italy. It takes its name from the fact that it was at that point in the city walls where the road led out to the city of Capua. The castle is at the southwest end of via dei Tribunali, and until re ...
, was rebuilt and relocated in 1484. Then when the walls were razed, the gate remained free-standing, giving it somewhat the air of a
triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road, and usually standing alone, unconnected to other buildings. In its simplest form, a triumphal ...
. The carving on the 1484 facings consists of classically inspired trophies,
flying Victories and other triumphal imagery. Just inside the gate, is the domed church of
Santa Caterina a Formiello
Santa Caterina a Formiello is a church in Naples, in southern Italy, located at the extreme eastern end of the old historic center of the city, on Via Carbonara and Piazza Enrico de Nicola, near the gate called Porta Capuana. The term ''Formiello' ...
.
1484 establishments in Europe
15th-century establishments in Italy
Gates of Naples
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