Entering Christian Rome: Porta San Pancrazio

Title

Entering Christian Rome: Porta San Pancrazio

Subject

The City's Edge

Description

Located on the Janiculum hill overlooking Trastevere, Porta San Pancrazio has been an important entryway into Rome since antiquity. In Ancient Rome, the gate was called Porta Aurelia because it was along the Aurelian wall and allowed access to an important road, the Via Aurelia. Perhaps as early as the 6th century, the name of the gate was changed to the current title, Porta San Pancrazio. The Marvels of Rome, a guidebook dated to the end of the 12th century, notes that the “Porta Aurelia or aurea, that is to say golden…. is now called Porta San Pancrazio.” The gate we see today was built by Virginio Vespignani in 1857 in order to remember the decisive battle that occurred there between the French and populist Roman forces led by Garibaldi in 1849.

The change in name, however, is an interesting story that occurred during the Middle Ages. Outside the gate — a five minute walk today — is the basilica of San Pancrazio that was built over the buried body of the martyred St. Pancras, a teenager who according to legend was killed by the Romans for his conversion to Christianity. Additionally, there is an extensive network of catacombs — or underground burial sites — under the basilica. During the Middle Ages, the relic of St. Pancras was an important destination for religious travelers. Thus, due to its proximity to the basilica, the gate was changed from its ancient title, Porta Aurelia, to its Christianized name, Porta San Pancrazio. In the late Middle Ages, then, Porta San Pancrazio would not only have functioned practically, but would have also carried religious meanings for both the pilgrim and Roman walking through its gates. Like many other sites across Rome, the Porta San Pancrazio is an example of how Romans negotiated between their ancient past and new Christian identity during the medieval period.

Abstract

Perched on the Janiculum hill overlooking Trastevere, Porta San Pancrazio has been an important entryway into Rome since antiquity. In Ancient Rome, the gate was called Porta Aurelia because it was along the Aurelian wall and allowed access to an important road, the Via Aurelia. Perhaps as early as the 6th century, the name of the gate was changed to the current title, Porta San Pancrazio. The Marvels of Rome, a guidebook dated to the end of the 12th century, notes that the “Porta Aurelia or aurea, that is to say golden... is now called Porta San Pancrazio.” The gate we see today was built by Virginio Vespignani in 1857 in order to remember the decisive battle that occurred there between the French and populist Roman forces led by Garibaldi in 1849.

Creator

Tyler Spaeth (2016)

Source

Richard Krautheimer. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Robbins, Deborah King. “A Case Study of Medieval Rome’s Urban Process: Rome’s Trastevere (1250-1450).” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkley, 1989).

The Marvels of Rome. Translated by Francis Morgan Nichols. New York: Italica Press, 1986.

Identifier

portasanpancrazio_2015

Coverage

1100s

Spatial Coverage

Largo di Porta S. Pancrazio, 16, 00153 Roma RM

Description

Located on the Janiculum hill overlooking Trastevere, Porta San Pancrazio has been an important entryway into Rome since antiquity. In Ancient Rome, the gate was called Porta Aurelia because it was along the Aurelian wall and allowed access to an important road, the Via Aurelia. Perhaps as early as the 6th century, the name of the gate was changed to the current title, Porta San Pancrazio. The Marvels of Rome, a guidebook dated to the end of the 12th century, notes that the “Porta Aurelia or aurea, that is to say golden…. is now called Porta San Pancrazio.” The gate we see today was built by Virginio Vespignani in 1857 in order to remember the decisive battle that occurred there between the French and populist Roman forces led by Garibaldi in 1849.

The change in name, however, is an interesting story that occurred during the Middle Ages. Outside the gate — a five minute walk today — is the basilica of San Pancrazio that was built over the buried body of the martyred St. Pancras, a teenager who according to legend was killed by the Romans for his conversion to Christianity. Additionally, there is an extensive network of catacombs — or underground burial sites — under the basilica. During the Middle Ages, the relic of St. Pancras was an important destination for religious travelers. Thus, due to its proximity to the basilica, the gate was changed from its ancient title, Porta Aurelia, to its Christianized name, Porta San Pancrazio. In the late Middle Ages, then, Porta San Pancrazio would not only have functioned practically, but would have also carried religious meanings for both the pilgrim and Roman walking through its gates. Like many other sites across Rome, the Porta San Pancrazio is an example of how Romans negotiated between their ancient past and new Christian identity during the medieval period.

Creator

Tyler Spaeth (2016)

Coverage

1100s

Source

Richard Krautheimer. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Robbins, Deborah King. “A Case Study of Medieval Rome’s Urban Process: Rome’s Trastevere (1250-1450).” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkley, 1989).

The Marvels of Rome. Translated by Francis Morgan Nichols. New York: Italica Press, 1986.

Geolocation