Porta San Giovanni (Rome)
Encyclopedia
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, named after the nearby Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano.
History
It is made up of a single grand arch built for pope Gregory XIIIPope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII , born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally-accepted civil calendar to this date.-Youth:He was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and wife Angela...
in "opera forse" by Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta was an Italian architect and sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica. He was born at Porlezza, Lombardy and died in Rome.-Biography:...
or, it is argued, Giacomo del Duca
Giacomo del Duca
Giacomo Del Duca was an Italian sculptor and architect during the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period...
, who had collaborated with Michelangelo on the Porta Pia
Porta Pia
Porta Pia is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. One of Pope Pius IV's civic improvements to the city, it is named after him. Situated at the end of a new street, the Via Pia, it was designed by Michelangelo in replacement for the Porta Nomentana situated several hundred meters...
. The confusion is because the chronology of the era merely speaks of a famous architect called Giacomo. Popular tradition insists the architect was Della Porta, for he died in crowds at the gate, "which he had built" of violent indigestion brought on by melons and watermelons, returning from a trip to the Castelli Romani
Castelli Romani
The Castelli Romani is a group of communes in the province of Rome, Italy. They are located at short distance south-east to Rome, at the feet of the Alban Hills.-Overview:...
.
Inaugurated in 1574, it had been necessitated by the reorganization of the whole Lateran
Lateran
Lateran and Laterano are the shared names of several architectural projects throughout Rome. The properties were once owned by the Lateranus family of the former Roman Empire...
area to facilitate traffic to and from southern Italy. Its opening led to the definitive closure of the neighboring and more imposing Porta Asinaria
Porta Asinaria
The Porta Asinaria is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome. Dominated by two protruding tower blocks and associated guard rooms, it was built between 270 and 273, at the same time as the Wall itself...
, of Aurelian date, which was by the 1570s proving unable to sustain such a high level of traffic and almost unusable due to the progressive raising of the road level neighboring.
Its design is conceived as more like the entrance to a villa than as a defensive work, lacking side towers, ramparts, and battlements, and marked instead by pronounced "bugnatura" work and by a simple decorative scheme composed of a large bearded head atop the arch on the external side.
The commemorative inscription above the arch reads:
The road in fact gives access to the via Campana (now the Via Appia Nuova), which for its first 3 miles follows the route of the ancient Via Asinaria
Via Asinaria
The Via Asinaria was an ancient Roman road starting at the Porta Asinaria in the Aurelian Wall. It could be accessed from the via Latina, and Belisarius diverged from the via Latina in his advance on Rome so that he would enter the city through the Porta Asinaria...
, then that of the Via Labicana
Via Labicana
The Via Labicana was an ancient road of Italy, leading east southeast from Rome. It seems possible that the road at first led to Tusculum, that it was then extended to Labici, and later still became a road for through traffic; it may even have superseded the Via Latina as a route to the southeast,...
. The name via Campana
Via Campana
The Via Campana was one of the main roads of the Roman Empire. It begins at the Flavian Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli and ran through several ancient craters, passing the town of Qualiano and ending at a junction with the via Appia at the town of Giugliano.Four kilometres from Pozzuoli it crosses the...
, it is presumed, derives both from the road's ultimate destination of Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
and from the Roman Campagna through which it runs.
Besides the historical and military events on its reliefs, the Porta San Giovanni is linked to popular Roman traditions, now almost entirely disappeared, especially that relating to the "Notte di San Giovanni", on 23 June, the "notte delle streghe", with a major festival. According to legend, on that night the ghost of Herodias
Herodias
Herodias was a Jewish princess of the Herodian Dynasty. Asteroid 546 Herodias is named after her.-Family relationships:*Daughter of Aristobulus IV...
, who had convinced her husband Herod Antipas
Herod Antipas
Herod Antipater , known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century AD ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch...
to decapitate John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
, organizes a witches' sabbath on the Lateran meadows - to chase them away, the Romans organised a big party with rattles and fireworks. The "notti di S. Giovanni" were always characterised by the custom of eating slugs, whose horns symbolised discord (the meaning of the tradition is much more recent) - the eaten slugs, thus, bury in the stomach all arguments and resentments that had accumulated over the previous year, giving the custom the meaning of reconciliation.
The modern Appio-Latino quarter, now outside the gate, was set up in 1926 by demolishing and building over houses, cottages, vineyards, inns, and meadows. To keep the gate viable, also in 1926 fornici were opened at its sides, which can still be seen today.