The construction of the building in 1155, probably by the same magistri antelami who created Porta dei Vacca (Master Giscardo, John Bono and John Cortese di Castello) is documented in the epigraphs walled inside, whose discovery in 1865, began the for a long period of restoration. The removal of the houses huddled in Porta Soprana since the sixteenth century, takes place in the late nineteenth century with the help of D'Andrade, during the arrangement of Via XX Settembre and Piazza De Ferrari, and in the 30s of last century, when Orlando Grosso directs the restoration of the south tower following the opening of Piazza Dante. The design of the walls of the twelfth century, erected against the Emperor Frederick of Hoenstaufen, said "Barbarossa", provided a door at the far east of the urban primitive pass on the Plan of St. Andrew, where the road network leading to the ancient castrum almost continuously (via Ravecca), the port Mandraccio the (edge of the prion) and the other side of town, manned by Porta Sottana (of the Holy Faith or Vacca). The double name comes from its location to the article is at the highest point of the city walls and the presence of the nearby monastery of St. Andrew, which was demolished in the early twentieth century to draw Via Dante. The door, which was identified from the outset with the medieval town enclosed by the contemporary defensive circle, took on a meaning of celebration recovering the concept of "sacred gate".