Porta Santo Spirito

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The south side towards the Tiber

The Porta Santo Spirito , also Porta di Santo Spirito , is one of the city ​​gates in Rome , which were built under Pope Leo IV during the construction of the Leonine Wall . Under Pope Paul III. in the 16th century it was to be rebuilt monumentally, but was never completed.

Location and original integration

The gate was one of only three that enabled access to the Civitas leoniana , today essentially the XIV. Rione Borgo , and the Vatican after the construction of the Leonine Wall . The entire wall with the gates was consecrated by the Pope and the clergy on June 27, 852. The name of the gate was originally Porta dei Sassoni , derived from the Schola saxonum , which had existed since 727 in the immediate vicinity of the gate that was then built. The name of the former hospice Santo Spirito in Sassia , which is only about 25 meters north of the gate , still reminds of this part of the story . The original purpose of the entire complex was to protect against Saracen attacks, which threatened cities such as Naples , Amalfi and Gaeta in the 9th century and which also extended to urban Roman territory.

Another story

The gate related to the bastions built in the 16th century

The Leonine Wall and with it the gates and defense towers were changed several times. The (counter) Pope John XXIII. had parts torn down from 1411, Popes Nicholas V and Alexander VI. rebuild them. Several changes followed for the Porta Santo Spirito, which can be seen inside the gate, in the passage.

After the Sacco di Roma in 1527, there was a need for all popes to strengthen their territory and that of the city of Rome. Pope Paul III had the old walls provided with bastions in the course of renovations in order to strengthen them and to modernize them against increasingly possible attacks with artillery .

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger was commissioned with the extensive fortification work from 1543/44, as well as with the redesign of the Porta Santo Spirito. Work was still being carried out on the gate in 1545. Giorgio Vasari mentions the gate in his Le vite dei più eccellenti architetti, pittori et scultori italiani and gives the reason for the failure to complete the fact that there were fundamental disputes between Da Sangallo and Michelangelo over the redesign of the Borgo . It is also conceivable that simply Da Sangallo's death in 1546 prevented further construction.

Work there Sangallos and today's appearance

Although the gate was never completed as planned and the upper part was only closed later, it is still an important secular building in the transition from the High Renaissance to the Baroque . Da Sangallo's original floor plans are partly still available and are now kept in the Uffizi in Florence .

At the time the construction work was stopped, roughly three-quarters of the southern, out-of-town facing side was built, the northern, inward-facing part was never started. Da Sangallo was based on a variant of ancient triumphal arch architecture . The unfinished front is made of travertine . He placed two strong niches next to the central archway, the facade is structured by four high-plinth three-quarter columns in a Doric order . It is also noteworthy that the facade does not run in a straight line, but rather has a segmental arch-shaped floor plan.

If the system had been completed, it would probably have been the "most complex" system of Roman city gates. Dorothee Heinzelmann comments on the Porta Santo Spirito: "Thus, the Porta S. Spirito embodies the ideas of the High Renaissance with its close reference to the shape of ancient triumphal arches, but seems to anticipate essential features of Baroque architecture in its plastic design language."

literature

  • Marco Bussagli (Ed.): Rome - Art & Architecture . Könemann, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-2258-1 .
  • Stefan Grundmann (Ed.): Architectural Guide Rome. An architectural history in 400 individual representations. Menges, Stuttgart et al. 1997, ISBN 3-930698-59-5 .
  • Stefan Schweizer: Between representation and function - Renaissance city gates in Italy. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-35180-1 .
  • Johann M. Wiesel: Rome. An art and travel guide . 7th edition Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1960, ISBN 3-17-005633-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Johann M. Wiesel: Rome. An art and travel guide , p. 171.
  2. ↑ Marco Bussagli (Ed.): Rom - Art & Architecture , p. 221.
  3. ↑ Stefan Grundmann (Ed.): Architectural Guide Rome , p. 145.
  4. ↑ a b Stefan Schweizer: Between Representation and Function - City Gates of the Renaissance in Italy , p. 350.
  5. ↑ a b Stefan Schweizer: Between Representation and Function - City Gates of the Renaissance in Italy , p. 343.
  6. ↑ a b c Stefan Grundmann (Ed.): Architekturführer Rom , p. 146.

Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 1.1 ″  N , 12 ° 27 ′ 41.8 ″  E