Porta Montanara

History

Porta Montanara was constructed in the first century BC. Its construction is attributed to the city's fortification after Sulla's civil war. The Roman colonia of Ariminum (modern-day Rimini) was initially controlled by Sulla's opponents, and briefly sheltered Gnaeus Papirius Carbo in 82 BC. The city was sacked by Sulla's army, requiring the reconstruction of its defensive fortifications. Porta Montanara was located at the southern end of Ariminum's cardo maximus, the principal north–south street (the present-day Via Giuseppe Garibaldi). It provided access to the road to Arretium (modern-day Arezzo) through the valley of the Marecchia, and to settlements in Rimini's hilly hinterland.

The gate originally comprised two arches. It was preceded by a guard courtyard with an internal door. As early as the first or second century AD, the north-facing arch was walled, while the south-facing arch was raised, due to the increase in the street level. In 1085, the gate is recorded as Porta Sant'Andrea, after the nearby church and district, Borgo Sant'Andrea.

In the 15th century, the gate was incorporated into a series of houses, nicknamed the Red Houses (Italian: Le case rosse), that belonged to the House of Malatesta. A passage was built over the gate, and the closed arch was incorporated into the cellars of the Palazzo Turchi. It was through the gates of Porta Sant'Andrea that, on 17 June 1528, the troops of the Papal States entered Rimini, definitively ending Malatesta rule.

With the arrival of the Cisalpine Republic in 1797, the gate was renamed to Porta Montanara (lit. 'mountain gate') to remove its religious connotations. As also happened at the city's other gates, the upper floors of the gate were destroyed by the occupying French troops to house an artillery battery. In the 19th century, the narrowness of the gate led to significant bottlenecks for wagons entering or leaving the city, which were subject to customs checks while passing through. On 6 May 1876, the municipal government debated a motion to demolish the gate, leading some supporters to damage it prematurely with pickaxes. In 1891, it approved works to widen the surrounding area, recognising the arch as "a great embarrassment to free transit, and some peril to passers-by". The works did little to alleviate congestion, and the arch remained unpopular among local residents. …

Appearance

The arch is made from blocks of sandstone from either the nearby Covignano hill or Pietracuta, a village on the Marecchia river in the municipality of San Leo, near the Sammarinese border. The original gate complex measured 12.5 metres (41 feet) wide and 2.2 metres (7.2 feet) deep, with each arch at a height of 5.9 metres (19 feet). The remaining arch is 3.45 metres (11.3 feet) wide. The arch is made from doubled rows of voussoirs.

The original position of the demolished gate, 40 metres (130 feet) along Via Garibaldi towards Piazza Tre Martiri, can be observed from cubes of flint in the road's pavement. The original site of the extant arch, having been walled as a cellar until the Second World War, is now occupied by a building.