The city walls of Rome: Saint Paul Door
After talking about the Porta Latina and the origin of the word Lazio associated with it, we dedicate our article to one of the most impressive and best preserved of the gates of the Aurelian Walls in Rome.
The name is due to the fact that it is located near the exit for the Basilica of San Paolo outside the walls.
The Gate has two huge towers with a circular base and originally two arches, it once took the name of Porta Ostiensis because the via Ostiense starts here and reaches the sea of Ostia between via Marmorata and viale Aventino. Over the years the port of Ostia lost its significant role for trade and the name of Paolo was increasingly associated with the port.
The collection of the toll for the relative transit took place nearby. (In this regard, the customs scene in the film “We just have to cry” is memorable, where the transit – in another area – is repeatedly asked: “Who are you. What do you do? A Fiorino” filmed at the Castle of Rota , a fraction of the municipality of Tolfa, in the province of Rome).
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In this regard tenders were instituted specifying the methods of auctioning the city gates and a document dated 1474 shows that the contract price for the gate “S. Paolo” was 49 florins for 6 months.
In the place we now find the Museum of the Via Ostiense, with important references to 10 September 1943, an event that happened exactly two days after the armistice, where Porta San Paolo was at the center of one of the clashes of courageous resistance to avoid the German occupation of Rome with the help of the Grenadiers of Sardinia.
A plaque commemorates the event stating “here the resistance marked the second risorgimento” which unfortunately had a negative epilogue and several people lost their lives including Raffaele Persichetti.
The prospect of Porta San Paolo with the nearby Pyramid of Cestius is suggestive, a strategic point with the non-Catholic cemetery nearby and the Roma Porta San Paolo station which serves as the northern terminus of the Rome-Lido railway.
The door appears in several films, including “Le Fate Ignoranti” by Ferzan Ozpetek.
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