Museo delle Mura, Historical park museum at Porta San Sebastiano, Italy
The Museo delle Mura occupies two floors of the Porta San Sebastiano, the gate also called Porta Appia at the start of the Appian Way. Room 2 stands over the gate's arch, Room 3 in the east tower holds four scale models of the walls and a plan of ancient Rome, and Room 7 displays a model of the Bastione Ardeatino by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger.
The Aurelian Wall was built from 270 CE onward, when the city needed a fast defensive ring against growing threats from outside, and it still follows much of its original route today. The Porta San Sebastiano was remodeled several times in later centuries and took on its current form with two round towers during the Byzantine period.
The name Museo delle Mura simply means Museum of the Walls, a reference to the ancient ring of stone that still surrounds much of the city today. Walking through the gate tower, visitors can see how the structure was used over many centuries, with changes to the brickwork that reflect different periods of use.
The museum is spread across several levels, including a walkable section of the wall itself, so sturdy shoes are a good idea before you head inside. The building sits at the end of Via di Porta San Sebastiano and is easy to spot from the street.
In 1939 the Fascist party secretary Ettore Muti took over the gate and had architect Luigi Moretti remodel rooms inside it; the black-and-white floor mosaics, including a tiger ambushing two deer, date from 1940–1943. Look for charcoal sketches on the walls of Room 7, possibly designs for the gate's decoration made for Charles V's passage in 1536.
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