Porte de Savoie, Roman city gate in Susa, Italy.
Porte de Savoie is a late antique city gate in Susa, built in the 3rd century AD as part of the Roman walls. It consists of a central wall with four storeys of windows and two flanking round towers, each with openings on three upper floors. The gateway was rebuilt in 1750, widening the passage, and the right tower was reinforced with a conical masonry casing.
The Roman city of Segusio received a new circuit of walls in the 3rd century AD, and two gates were built on the road through the Susa valley. The well-preserved west gate has been known as Porte de Savoie since the Middle Ages; of the east gate, the Porta Torino, only a fragment survives. In the 11th century the medieval Cathedral of Susa was founded beside the gate under Margravine Adelaide of Susa and Margrave Oderico Manfredi.
The structure takes its name from the House of Savoy and is also called Porta del Paradiso because of its nearness to San Giusto Cathedral. Visitors notice how this dual naming reflects the bond between the monument and the city's main religious buildings.
The gate stands beside Susa Cathedral on Piazza Savoia, at the western edge of the old town, and can be viewed from the square at any time. The 1750 rebuilding widened the passage so that the arch now fills the whole space between the two round towers; the right tower, seen from inside the city, was given a conical reinforcement.
The gate was originally designed as a control point for commerce and movement across the Alpine passes, providing strategic oversight of a crucial access route. This combination of defensive features and its role as a traffic junction makes it an unusual example of Roman frontier architecture.
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