Porta Romana ("Roman Gate") is a former

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 ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

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. In its present form, the gate dates back to the 16th century Spanish walls of Milan. Its origins can be traced further back to the Roman walls of the city, which had a corresponding "Roman Gate" roughly in the same area. Porta Romana was the first and the main imperial entrance of the entire city of Milan, as it was the starting point of the road leading to

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. According to a survey conducted by Scenari Immobiliari in 2020, this area is in first place in the ranking of the neighborhoods that offer the best liveability in Milan. Arco trionfale della via Porticata di Milano

Arco trionfale della via Porticata di Milano

The name "Porta Romana" is used both to refer to the gate proper and to the surrounding district ("

quartiere A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the title of (). Formed a ...

"), part of the Zone 4 administrative division of Milan (and bordering with zone 5), located south-east of the city centre.

The gate

History

The Roman walls of Milan already had a gate facing in the same direction as Porta Romana; yet it was located much closer to the city centre, in a place that corresponds to what is now Piazza Missori. In the Middle Ages (12th century) the walls were enlarged, and the gate was moved outwards in the direction of modern Corso di Porta Venezia. In the 16th century, a third system of walls was built under the Spanish rule, and the gate was moved further away from the centre to its current location. The construction of the gate was completed by 1596, on the occasion of Queen Margaret of Spain visiting Milan. For two centuries, Porta Romana was the most sumptuous gate of Milan. Porta romana 1886

Location and structure

Porta Romana is located at the centre of a city square called Piazza Medaglie d'Oro, about 2 km south-east of the city centre. It is placed at the conjunction of several major streets, namely Corso Lodi (to the south east), Viale Montenero (to the north east), and Corso di Porta Romana (leading north west, towards the Duomo). The structure of the gate is inspired by

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

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 ...

es of the

doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

The district

The area around the Porta Romana gate is one of the historic districts (''rioni'') of Milan; the ''rione'' had its own coat of arms, vermilion red. Today, the inner part of the Porta Romana district is adjacent to the city centre, and thus has a similar character as the centre itself: it is mostly a shopping district, with sumptuous 19th century- and early 20th century buildings that are either used as prestigious offices or as residences for the Milanese ''élite''. Several institutions, including embassies and high level schools, are based in this area. Milanese celebrities that have lived here include

Enzo Biagi Enzo Biagi (; 9 August 1920 – 6 November 2007) was an Italian journalist, writer and former partisan. Life and career Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. In 1952, he worked on the screenpl ...

Enzo Bearzot Enzo Bearzot (; 26 September 1927 – 21 December 2010) was an Italian professional football player and manager. A defender and midfielder in his playing career, he also coached the Italy national team to victory in the 1982 FIFA World Cup. ...

, and

Dario Fo Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...

. The southern part of the district, farther away from the centre, is correspondingly less luxurious. Specific situations of

urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban decay. ...

, such as

slum A slum is a highly populated Urban area, urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are p ...

s developing in abandoned traits of the old railway, have been reported.Sopralluogo alla baraccopoli di Porta Romana
Much of the activity today centres on the Policlinico hospital and the famous

Bocconi University Bocconi University or Università Bocconi (formally known in Italian language, Italian as ''Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi'' – Luigi Bocconi Commercial University) is a private university in Milan, Italy. The university is consistently ...

so there is a young population by day, although there is not the same student buzz here as in other parts of the city.

Footnotes

External links

History of Porta Romana
(in Italian) {{Authority control Districts of Milan