Porta Pinciana

Pinciana Gate is one of the gates in the Aurelian Walls. Its name derives from Gens Pincia, who owned the Hill of the same name. It was built by the Emperor Honorius in 403, in a position of extreme strategic importance: its unique brick arch, located halfway between two buttresses square protruding from the Walls, it was enlarged and reinforced, and two cylindrical towers were added to the sides. The original arch, in travertine, still exists. The Gate is closely linked, from a historical perspective, to the Byzantine general Belisario who, in 537, fought victoriously, with a few thousand men, against Vitige. The two side arches that exist today have been made in modern times, but the Pinciana is one of the few outside Rome gates whose restoration did not affect the original appearance, and then remained practically the same as it was originally.