Aosta · Italy

Porta Praetoria

This is the eastern gate of the Roman city, and almost all of it survives. Observe how one enters: not a single arch but two, with an open courtyard between them. It was a trap. Anyone arriving with ill intent found himself shut between two gratings, with soldiers overhead in the towers on either side. There are three passages: the broad one at the centre for carts, two narrower ones for those on foot. Now look down. The Roman level is nearly three metres beneath your feet: two thousand years of a city raised again on its own rubble, one fire after another, one flood after another. The stone you see today is bare, but it was once faced in white marble. Look for it about Aosta and you will find it, stripped off in the Middle Ages and set to work again in the churches. The gate remained standing regardless. It was too useful to demolish, and too large for the attempt to be worth making.

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Why two gates?

Because a single gate can be broken down. With two, an attacker found himself in a closed courtyard, exposed to the towers on either side. In peacetime the courtyard was simply where carts were checked and tolls collected.

Why is the ground lower?

Cities rise. Every fire, every collapse, every street laid over the last one adds a few centimetres. In two thousand years Aosta has risen nearly three metres, and the Roman gate stayed where it was.

Where did the marble go?

Reused. In the Middle Ages a Roman ruin was a convenient, free quarry: the facing was stripped off and set to work elsewhere, mostly in religious buildings. It is not vandalism, it is economics.

Where it is

Via Sant'Anselmo - Rue Saint-Anselme, 11100 Aosta · 45.73796, 7.32354 · Open in Maps

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