Porta Santa Croce, City gate in Padua, Italy

Porta Santa Croce is a Renaissance city gate in the southern section of Padua's old city walls, built in the early 16th century. It takes the form of a Roman triumphal arch with large stone Corinthian pilasters, a roofed terrace above the opening, and a barrel-vaulted interior with brick walls.

Porta Santa Croce replaced a Carrarese gate of 1372 that stood further back along the old Bacchiglione course and had an octagonal tower, demolished in 1787. The present gate was built after the 1509 siege of Padua, following the 1517 report of Andrea Gritti and designs proposed by Fra Giocondo; the scheme is attributed to Sebastiano Mariani da Lugano. The adjoining bastion dates from 1554.

The name Santa Croce, linked to the southern district and its church, dates from the Carrarese period, when Francesco III "Il Vecchio" had earth ramparts thrown up in 1372 to protect the southern and eastern borghi, including Santa Croce and Ognissanti; all citizens worked on them, and between 1374 and 1377 the defences were completed in masonry. The present gate, designed by Sebastiano Mariani da Lugano on a triumphal-arch scheme, was built after 1517 as part of Venice's bastioned system, and its outer face carries the stone panel inscribed "MEMORANDUM DI VITTORIO EMANUELE II I LIBERATORI".

Porta Santa Croce stands on the southern circuit of Padua's 16th-century walls, where the bastion beside it was added in 1554. The gate faces outward toward the former glacis, the mile-deep cleared zone created after 1509 so defenders could spot attackers; the inner side opens toward the historic centre.

The gate's design by Sebastiano Mariani da Lugano follows the model of a Roman triumphal arch, a form chosen to convey Venice's political and military strength. The adjacent bastion was added in 1554, completing the defensive complex.