Porta Romana, Medieval gate in Milan, Italy

Porta Romana is a medieval city gate in central Milan featuring thick stone walls and distinctive archways that mark a major intersection of traffic routes. Its robust construction displays the defensive architecture of the period and still shapes the character of the surrounding square.

The medieval gate replaced an earlier Roman gate at today's Piazza Missori. Ariberto da Intimiano directed works in the 11th century ahead of Conrad II's siege, and the Rocchetta was built with remains of the Roman triumphal arch. Destroyed by Barbarossa, who was wounded here by an arrow, the gate was restored in the 13th century; the Rocchetta was demolished before 1793.

The gate's name refers to the road to Rome, and the medieval gate replaced an earlier Roman one at Piazza Missori. On the bridge over the Naviglio, Pope Benedict XIII placed a statue of St. John Nepomuk in 1729, called San Gioàn by Milanese; it now stands in the garden of the Galleria d'Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei.

The gate sits at a major traffic intersection and is easily reached by public transportation, with shops and cafes nearby. Visitors should expect the area to be busy during daytime hours, especially during peak traffic times.

The gate's medieval reliefs were moved to the Castello Sforzesco museums, where they remain. One shows a bearded king seated cross-legged on a dragon; over the centuries it was read as Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, as a mockery of Barbarossa, or as Maximian, who built Milan's first walls.