Porta Sant'Anna, City gate at Sant'Anna neighborhood, Lucca, Italy.
Porta Sant'Anna, officially Porta Vittorio Emanuele, is a gate opened in 1910 through Lucca's western wall. It has two carriage arches flanked by two pedestrian passages, cut below the toro separating the wall's scarp from its parapet, with exposed-brick arches and a marble coat of arms between the central passages.
Porta Sant'Anna, officially Porta Vittorio Emanuele, was opened in 1910 to ease traffic in and out of western Lucca, since the 17th-century Porta San Donato was too narrow for motor vehicles. Two carriageways with flanking pedestrian passages were cut through the walls in line with the widened Via Vittorio Emanuele, which replaced Via di San Paolino as the main western route. From 1911 to 1938 trams of the Lucca-Ponte S. Pietro-Maggiano line passed through it.
The marble urban emblem positioned between the central vehicle passages represents the architectural identity of twentieth-century Lucca.
The gate sits on the western side of Lucca's walls, where widened Via Vittorio Emanuele meets Via Sarzanese. Two carriage openings are flanked by two pedestrian passages, so walkers pass beside the traffic rather than through it. The openings cut beneath the toro separating the wall's scarp from its parapet, keeping the curtain line unbroken.
From 1911 to 1938 trams of the Lucca–Ponte S. Pietro–Maggiano line, running along Via Sarzanese, passed through the gate and served the Sant'Anna district. The two carriageways sit beneath the toro separating the wall's scarp from its parapet, with no superstructure above.
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