Antica Porta San Donato, City gate in Lucca, Italy.

Antica Porta San Donato stands on the left side of today's Piazzale Verdi, facing west. Vincenzo Civitali designed it in 1590 together with a musone bulwark, since that stretch of the city was still defended by the medieval curtain. Two marble lions from the medieval gate remain on the monumental outer facade, and the outer moat is still partly visible, though the drawbridge has disappeared.

Built in 1590 to a design by Vincenzo Civitali, the gate was paired with a musone bulwark because the medieval curtain on Lucca's west side was considered weak. Ginese Bresciani later worked on the same defensive scheme, which lasted only about fifty years: when the walls were enlarged, the new Porta San Donato, built between 1629 and 1639, absorbed the old gate into the new circuit.

The gate is named after Saint Donatus, the 4th-century bishop of Arezzo, and since the 2000s it has housed Lucca's tourist information office. Visitors enter through the left side of Piazzale Verdi, where the marble lions taken from the medieval gate still watch over the passage.

The gate stands on the left side of today's Piazzale Verdi, not Piazzale San Donato, and houses Lucca's tourist information office. The outer moat is still partly visible in front of the facade, though the drawbridge is gone. Look for the two marble lions on the outer facade, moved here from the medieval gate.

The two marble lions on the outer facade were moved here from the medieval gate that previously stood on this spot. The outer moat is still partly visible, though the drawbridge that once crossed it has disappeared.