Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

Links to this page can be found in Book 1, Map C3, Day 6 and Rione Trastevere.

The page covers:
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view
Porta Portese
Exhibits from the Museums:
  - Horti Caesaris
Necropoli Portuense
S. Passera
Tempio degli Arvali
Castello della Magliana
The Walls from Porta Portese to Porta S. Pancrazio

The Plate (No. 12)

This 1747 etching by Giuseppe Vasi shows what at that time was the newest gate of Rome together with Porta S. Pancrazio. It was built in the 1640s to replace Porta Portuensis, an ancient gate which Vasi showed in a small etching based on a drawing. The position of the new gate was closer than the old one to the populated part of Trastevere and to Porto di Ripa Grande, its main harbour. In the XVIIIth century the development of the latter led to building a shipyard, granaries and other docks outside the gate. Via Portuense, the road which started at Porta Portese was a very minor one and therefore Vasi did not show any carriages going through it.
The view is taken from the green dot in the small b/w 1748 map here below. In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Ospizio di S. Michele; 2) Dogana (customs) di Ripa Grande; 3) S. Maria del Priorato; 4) dock for unloading marbles. The b/w map shows also 5) Porta Portese. 1), 2) and 3) are covered in other pages. The coloured map (ca 1880) shows: 5) Porta Portese; 6) approximate site of Horti Caesaris; 7) approximate site of Necropoli Portuense; 8) S. Passera. Tempio degli Arvali and Castello della Magliana, a hunting lodge, are located five miles south of Porta Portese.

Today

The view in November 2009

Today Porta Portese is best known for its Sunday flea market. The custom house which stood behind the gate was pulled down in 1915 and this facilitates the view over S. Maria del Priorato. The gate serves only local traffic needs; cars coming from the city continue to pass through it, whereas a modern opening is reserved to those going the other way.

Porta Portese

(left) Porta Portese; (right) coat of arms of Pope Innocent X which shows a dove carrying an olive branch

The gate was designed by Marcantonio De' Rossi, the military architect in charge of the construction of new walls around Trastevere. He followed the pattern established by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger at Porta S. Spirito, an unfinished gate.
The walls were built at the initiative of Pope Urban VIII, but the gate was not yet completed when the Pope passed away in 1644. Pope Innocent X, his successor, immediately ordered that his coat of arms should be placed on the gate, but he did not care to complete it: no statues were placed in the niches, nor a tower was built above it, as it had been done at Porta S. Pancrazio, the other gate of the new walls.

Exhibits from the Museums

Musei Vaticani: relief depicting the birth of Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus. It was found near Porta Portese and it is recorded at the Vatican since the early XIXth century

Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her unknown to Hera. Now Zeus had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera she asked that he would come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele expired of fright, and Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it in his thigh. (..) At the proper time Zeus undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus (hence the god is called twice born), and entrusted him to Hermes.
Apollodorus - The Library - Translation by Sir George Frazier.
The three women behind Hermes have been identified with Lucina or Nysa, Persephone and Ceres who all are associated with motherhood and child rearing. Dionysus was eventually entrusted to the care of Silenus, a satyr. The relief is interesting because of its unusual subject and shallow depth. It is a IInd century AD Roman copy of a lost Greek original.

Centrale Montemartini: (above) sarcophagus which was found in 1926 near Porta Portese (ca 160 AD); (below) its lid which shows events involving wild beasts which took place in the amphitheatres (see a Colosseo Playbill by Mark Twain and a list of sarcophagi which were found in Rome)

The front of the sarcophagus shows a fight between Romans and barbarians, a rather popular subject (see Sarcofago Grande Ludovisi). The lid is more interesting as it shows in the left section wild animals (including asses, ostriches and gazelles) running and fighting and in the right one two men who were condemned to be killed by lions; at the very end a magister, the warden of the lions (see a magister in a large sarcophagus at Musei Vaticani). The capture of wild animals is depicted in many floor mosaics in Algeria and Tunisia, whereas their transportation can be seen in a large mosaic at Villa del Casale in Sicily. The representation of a group of lions acting as executioners is not frequent in Roman art, exception made for Christian mosaics and sarcophagi depicting the Prophet Daniel.

Musei Capitolini: sarcophagus which was found in 1930 outside Porta Portese along the Rome-Pisa railway (ca 160 AD); (above) the whole sarcophagus; (below) details of the lid showing Bacchus, Ariadne and Pan and of a section of the box

This sarcophagus strikes the viewer owing to its fine execution and because the hair of human beings and animals bear evidence of having been painted. The elements composing the scenes of the thiasos (Dionysiac procession) are very similar to those of a sarcophagus of the Farnese collection.

Horti Caesaris

Museo Nazionale Romano: Busts of charioteers from a temple to Hercules

In 1889, during excavations for the construction of a railway station, elements of a temple to Hercules were unearthed. Archaeologists found seven busts of charioteers in addition to small statues of the god and dedicatory inscriptions to him.
In antiquity the site was known as Horti Caesaris, a suburban villa which belonged to Julius Caesar and where most likely Cleopatra lived during her Roman stay in 46-44 BC.

(left) Museo Nazionale Romano: bust of a charioteer; (right) Centrale Montemartini: a son of Niobe

Roman charioteers could earn substantial rewards for winning races at Circus Maximus. They were able to build themselves fine funerary monuments, e.g. that of P. Aelius "Gutta" Calpurnianus, and to dedicate a bust to Hercules, a symbol of athletic victory. An analysis of the hairstyles of the charioteers indicates that they lived in the Ist/early IInd century AD.
In 1956, in a street not far from the railway station, a life-size statue was found. It portrays one of the sons of Niobe who is about to be killed by Apollo and Diana. A copy of this statue can be seen in the gardens of Villa Medici with those of other children of Niobe.

Necropoli Portuense

Archaeological area of Pozzo Pantaleo in December 2022

We went outside Porta Portese several times to look for the holy cemeteries in the vineyards. (..) We found one of these sites near a place called Pozzo Pantaleo.
Antonio Bosio - Roma Sotterranea - 1632
The Valle di Pozzo Pantaleo has been bodily excavated through the hills of Monteverde by the ancient Roman quarrymen supplying tufa for the "opus quadratum" and the "opus reticulatum". (..) The galleries of the quarry vary in size from 10 to 20 feet, and their floor is leveled so as to conduct the rain-water to one central outlet, running towards the brook of Pozzo Pantaleo.
Rodolfo Lanciani - The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome - 1897
"Pozzo Pantaleo" (Well of Pantaleo) was most likely a reference to a round mausoleum, which was turned into a cistern and eventually into a small church which was dedicated to St. Pantaleon. The church was last mentioned in a XIVth century directory of Roman churches. In the 1980s, archaeological excavations along the railway line which links Rome with the Fiumicino Airport, identified a building which might have been the mausoleum/cistern/church.

(left) Via Campana, an ancient Roman road which branched off Via Portuense at Pozzo Pantaleo; (right) Drugstore Museum: floor mosaic from a mausoleum at Pozzo Pantaleo (IInd century AD)

Via Portuense was important in antiquity because it led to Portus, an artificial harbour built by Emperor Claudius and enlarged by Emperor Trajan. The road split into two branches: one along the river and one which crossed a hilly area. The excavations at Pozzo Pantaleo identified a number of mausoleums and facilities where travellers could rest, including small baths. Some of the objects which were found during the excavations can be seen at a nearby small museum.

Drugstore Museum: (left) inscription found at Pozzo Pantaleo: it states that Emperor Vespasian ordered that an area which had been occupied illegally should be returned to the College of Pontiffs; (right) small tomb with a finely decorated brick front

A necropolis was dug up in 1982-1983 near Via Portuense when laying down the foundations of a new building which was meant to house a drugstore. In 2006 work began to give access to five tombs inside the building. In 2019 the project was finalized and the Drugstore Museum was open to the public. The tombs are partially excavated into the rock and partially built in opus reticulatum mixed with bricks.

Drugstore Museum: main tomb (IInd/IIIrd century AD)

The largest of these tombs, is a room which is almost entirely excavated into the rock; at the centre of the end wall is a niche (arcosolium see a similar niche at Porto) the vault of which is decorated with a stucco shell. On the other walls are small niches which contained cinerary urns.

Drugstore Museum: main tomb: detail of the end wall

The depictions of vegetables, a fish and a loaf, in addition to flowers are a reference to the funerary banquets which were periodically held to commemorate the dead. You may wish to see a page on Roman funerary rites.

Drugstore Museum: main tomb: floor mosaic

The black and white floor mosaic represents scenes of grape harvest and, in the centre, the episode of Lycurgus assaulting the nymph Ambrosia who turns into a vine to defend herself (see the spectacular Mosaic of Ambrosia and Lycurgus (late IInd century AD) at Vienne). The grapevine growing from a kantharos, a cup used for drinking wine, was a popular subject for floor mosaics (see examples at Via Appia Antica and in Tunisia).

Necropoli del Casale di Vigna Pia: Mausoleum of Atilia and detail showing the mosaic inscription

In 1998 another group of tombs was identified in the premises of a former farmhouse which had been turned into a restaurant. In 2006 the excavations were completed and the area was opened to the public. A small family tomb is named after Atilia, to whom it was dedicated by Atilius Abascantus, her husband.

Necropoli del Casale di Vigna Pia: "columbarium" and detail of a fresco portraying the head of Medusa

Columbarium means dovecote and it was a tomb with many small niches where the ash urns were placed. It usually had an upper storey or adjoining halls where funerary banquets and other ceremonies were held. That found at Casale di Vigna Pia was not meant for a family, but most likely, similar to a modern ossuary, its niches could be bought separately (see a finely decorated columbarium near S. Pancrazio).

Museo Nazionale Romano - Tomba dei Dipinti (IInd century AD)

In 1956 UNESCO, the cultural body of the United Nations, produced the first set of international recommendations on archaeological excavations, intended as guidelines for member states. They encouraged preservation in situ, rather than removing antiquities to museums. These guidelines were adopted for the tombs of Necropoli Portuense which were found in recent years, but two mausoleums which were found in 1951 and were entirely excavated into the rock were relocated to a hall of Terme di Diocleziano in their entirety. Tomba dei Dipinti was most likely built by the parents of two young men who are portrayed inside clipei (round shields - see some funerary monuments).

Museo Nazionale Romano - Tomba degli Stucchi (IInd century AD) - detail of the ceiling (see other fine stucco decorations at a tomb in the Great Necropolis of Porto and in an underground basilica near Porta Maggiore)

The tombs housed also the cinerary urns of the liberti (freedmen) of the family. Their elaborate decoration with portraits of the dead, flowers, birds and cupids, all rather small in size, was meant to represent the peace of the afterlife, in what appears to be a relaxed approach to death.
The souls of the dead were celebrated on Feralia, a public holiday on February 21st. In addition to this general commemoration, funerary rites were performed on the birthday of the dead and not on the anniversary of their death. In the case of tombs with so many cinerary urns as those shown above ceremonies were performed rather frequently and from what we know they were not particularly distressing.

Centrale Montemartini: floor mosaic of another tomb of Necropoli Portuense which was found in 1885

While Proserpine was gathering violets or radiant lilies, while with girlish fondness she filled the folds of her gown, and her basket, trying to outdo her companions in her picking, Dis (Pluto), almost in a moment, saw her, prized her, took her: so swift as this, is love. The frightened goddess cries out to her mother, to her friends, most of all to her mother, with piteous mouth. Since she had torn her dress at the opening, the flowers she had collected fell from her loosened tunic, and even their scattering caused her virgin tears. The ravisher whipped up his chariot, and urged on the horses, calling them by name, shaking out the shadowy, dark-dyed, reins, over their necks and manes.
Ovid - Metamorphoses - Book V - translation by A. S. Kline
The Rape of Proserpina/Persephone/Kore (read the story about her rape) was depicted in many sarcophagi in different parts of the Roman Empire, e.g. Spain, Germany, Rome. The event was a symbol of the cycle of life, similar to the Four Seasons which were represented around the main mosaic.
You may wish to see how it was depicted in the XVth century at S. Pietro.
See a funerary inscription from Via Portuense at Parco Archeologico del Celio.

S. Passera

(left) Front showing also the entrance to the older/lower church; (right) detail of one of two brickwork decorated windows

Passera is a saint who never existed; the Roman devout refrain from using this name because it has a modern slang meaning. "Passera" is most likely a corruption of Aba Cyrus (Saint Cyrus), because the church housed the relics of St. Cyrus of Alexandria, a physician, and of St. John, one of his disciples.
Aboukir, the Egyptian town 12 miles east of Alexandria near the famous bay where in August 1798 Sir Horatio Nelson defeated the French fleet, is a corruption of Aba Cyrus (St. Cyrus) and it was the site of a shrine to this saint; after the Arab invasion the shrine fell into abandonment and the relics of the saint and of St. John were brought to Rome (the story is very similar to that of St. Mark). In the XVIIth century the relics were moved to a Jesuit church in Naples. Ciro is still a very popular first name in Naples.
The church is located at a turn of the River Tiber, opposite S. Paolo fuori le Mura and until the end of the XIXth century it served a small community of miners excavating the tufa quarries of the nearby hills; today the area is densely populated and a large parish church was built in 1978 very near S. Passera.

(left) Side view of the church showing the existence of a previous lower building; (centre) detail of the small window with a plait decoration; (right) detail of the window in the apse showing a small ancient column

The origin of the current building has been extensively debated, its antiquity being very evident. It contains a church with a small apartment for the priest which stands above an earlier church which in turn includes a hypogeum, an underground room for burials. The presence of two brickwork windows at the sides of the entrance which are very similar to those which can be seen in some IInd century AD Roman mausoleums, e.g. Sepolcro di Annia Regilla and Tomba Barberini a Via Latina, support the opinion that the whole building was a Roman tomb. It had two storeys above ground where the Romans held their funerary rites (see a page on this topic): the lower one was turned into a church approximately in the VIIIth century and when the floods of the Tiber raised the ground around the building the upper storey was restored and partly rebuilt and the church was relocated there, approximately in the XIIIth century. The hypogeum was filled with earth in 1706 and rediscovered in 1904; its decoration was mainly based on stucco geometric patterns with small figurative details.

(above) Funerary inscription CARIANAE L L MATRI / CARIANAE SP F SECUNDAE SORORI / C BOVIANO C F CLV PROCULO SECUN / HYBLAEO DIVI AUGUSTI A MA[NU-] mentioning Hyblaeus, a slave/freedman of Emperor Augustus of Greek origin; (below-left) "cipollino" step; (below-right) fragment of another Roman inscription used as a step

The church contains some reused ancient building material, including a funerary inscription which is dated early Ist century AD. In 1608 the building was restored and in 1632 Antonio Bosio, the author of Roma Sotterranea, a treatise on the Roman catacombs, referred to the church as S. Prassede alla Via Portuense (see the church of S. Prassede in Rome), but he added that it was commonly called S. Passera. He indicated that it had an underground chamber, the entrance to which bore the inscription: CORPORA SANCTA CYRI RENITENT HIC ATQVE IOANNIS QVAE QUONDAM ROMAE DEDIT ALEXANDRIA MAGNA and that on the feast day of St. Praxedes great celebrations were held there.

Interior

The interior is a simple rectangular hall with a semi-circular apse at its end; it is usually rather dark, because it receives light only from three small windows, exception made for a few minutes before the beginning of the Sunday morning Mass when the entrance door is kept fully open. The walls were covered by XIVth century frescoes but in 1891 an explosion at a nearby factory greatly damaged the right hand wall and its frescoes were destroyed.
Over the centuries the frescoes were badly repainted or whitewashed; in 2009 a careful restoration brought back their original design and colour as much as possible.

Apse wall

Above the niche of the apse were painted the Lamb of God with the symbols of the Four Evangelists and, at the sides of it, Sts. John and Cyrus and Sts. Praxedes and Pudentiana, her sister. The upper part of the niche houses a very damaged depiction of Jesus flanked by Sts. John the Baptist, Paul, Peter and John the Evangelist. The lower part is in a much better condition and it portrays (left to right) two donors (a woman and a man) who are introduced to the Virgin Mary by St. Anthony and by another saint; St. Michael the Archangel; Jesus between Sts. Cyrus and John. The donors have not been identified, but the church belonged for a period to a nunnery, so the woman might have been its abbess.

Side wall: (left to right) Sts. John Chrysostom*, Epiphanius of Salamis, Basil the Great*, Gregory of Nazantius* and Nicholas of Myra; (*) the three Holy Hierarchs of Eastern Christianity

The depiction of Eastern saints is not very consistent with the religious feelings of XIVth century Rome and their portrayal reflects Byzantine iconography. It is likely that a similar painting existed in the old church which was decorated at a time when Greek culture prevailed in Rome (see a fresco at S. Maria Antiqua) and that it was copied in the new one.

(above) Roman tombstones which are placed on the terrace leading to the entrance; (below) two fragments of ancient carved friezes at the back of the church near the apse

Tempio degli Arvali

Museo Nazionale Romano: (left-above): decoration of the Temple to Dea Dia; (left-below) fragment of the annals of the "Frat(res) Arval(es)"; (right) cast of a bust of Emperor Antoninus Pius as head of the Arvales at the Louvre Museum

The College of the Fratres Arvales was the most antique and venerable of Roman religious brotherhoods. Its origin is lost in the darkness of age: it was most likely imported into Rome from Alba together with the institution of the Vestal Virgins; at any rate, it is always mentioned by ancient writers in connection with Romulus, the founder of the city. It was composed of twelve members, selected from the highest patrician families, whose duty was to offer sacrifices on various days and months of the year to a goddess called Dea Dia, to implore the blessings of heaven on the produce of the soil, such as crops and harvests of every description, the vintage, and so forth. (..) They used to assemble in a little wood at the fifth milestone of the Via Campana, on the slope of the hills which now overlook the farm of La Magliana, the rendezvous de chasse of Pope Leo X., where he caught the fever which caused his death. The slope was excavated from top to bottom in 1868 and 1869 (..) under the direction of the late Professor W. Henzen. The very temple of the Dea Dia was discovered, a round marble structure raised on a very high platform, on the vertical surface of which the annals, or yearly records, of the fraternity were engraved. To speak of the importance of these annals, which begin with the reign of Augustus and stop with that of Gordianus II., a lapse of two centuries and a half, and which contain an almost incredible amount of archaeological, historical, and chronological information, would not be consistent with the spirit of this chapter.
Rodolfo Lanciani - Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries - 1888

Castello della Magliana

Loggia built by Pope Julius II

Hunting has always been a preferred pastime of the rich; Girolamo Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, enjoyed hunting and he turned a farmhouse five miles south of Porta Portese into a small hunting lodge; Pope Innocent VIII, Pope Julius II and Pope Leo X enlarged and embellished the building. In particular Pope Leo X enjoyed spending occasional sunny winter days at this lodge (the site was very unhealthy in summer). Pope Pius IV used to relax here before he built a casino in the Vatican. Because of its unprotected location the lodge was fortified and from the outside it has the appearance of a small castle.

(left) Section built by Pope Innocent VIII; (right) fountain with the coat of arms of Pope Pius IV

The Villa Magliana is a castellated building of somewhat striking aspect, with battlemented walls and a tower. The courtyard, adorned with a fountain, is entered through an imposing portal. (..) Leo X was fond of it, and it is said that his death was caused by a cold caught here. (..) This villa, once the luxurious retreat of popes, is fallen from its high estate, and is no more than a humble farm-house. Its spacious rooms were filled with grain and other agricultural produce. Men in the garb of common laborers were lounging about; the courtyard was littered with straw and filth; and barn-door fowls were pecking and scratching around the fountain.
George Stillman Hillard - Six Months in Italy in ca 1847-1848
While during the Renaissance no one objected to the fact that a pope spent his time hunting, in the following centuries this pastime was no longer regarded as appropriate for a pope and the lodge was abandoned. Today it is part of a hospital run by the Order of the Knights of Malta.

(left) Fragment of an ancient altar of the Arvales and behind it the Malta Cross on the former stables (see a similar altar at Villa dei Volusii); (right) inscriptions celebrating Pope Innocent VIII (above) and Pope Julius II (below - misspelled)

Papa (Pope) means father and it is the title of the Bishop of Rome and Head of the Roman Catholic Church. This title was used in medieval inscriptions where in some instances it was written as "P.P." (Pater Patrum). During the Renaissance and afterwards the popes preferred to use a title (Pontifex Maximus - Pont. Max. or P.M.) which was part of the system of government of Ancient Rome. Pontifex Maximus was a magistrate in charge of presiding over the most important religious ceremonies; after Augustus it became a title given to the emperors who very often were portrayed in statues as Pontifex Maximus (you may wish to see a statue of Augustus as Pontifex Maximus).

The Walls from Porta Portese to Porta S. Pancrazio

(left) The walls near Porta Portese; (right) 1644 coat of arms of Pope Urban VIII

In 1641 Pope Urban VIII made an attempt to impose direct papal authority on the Duchy of Castro, a fiefdom of the Farnese within the borders of the Papal State. The Farnese, who were also Dukes of Parma, reacted to a decree imposing trade restrictions by strengthening the fortifications of Castro. In 1642 a papal army invaded and conquered Castro, but the Farnese retaliated by invading Romagna, the northern province of the Papal State, and by asking the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Republic of Venice to form an alliance against the Pope. This threat led Pope Urban VIII to decide to protect Rome by building new walls around Trastevere. The walls were completed in just two years, but in the meantime the Pope had to sign a peace agreement and to return Castro to the Farnese.
The pontificate of Urban VIII lasted nearly 21 years and during this time the three bees of his coat of arms were placed in every corner of Rome, including these walls, as shown also in the image used as background for this page.

(left) The walls near Porta S. Pancrazio; (right) "posterula" (small gate) leading to Villa Sciarra with the coat of arms of Pope Urban VIII

In 1849 the section of the walls near Porta S. Pancrazio was greatly damaged by the French when they had to overcome the resistance of Garibaldi who was commanding the defence of the Roman Republic.
The walls were rebuilt by Pope Pius IX.

Next plate in Book 1: Candelabro degli Ebrei (Jewish Cemetery off Porta Portese).
Next step in Day 6 itinerary: Arsenale Pontificio.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:

Porta Portese Portuense dicevasi questa porta, per la strada, che al famoso porto Romano conduceva. Stava prima più avanti alla strada alberata, ma Urbano VIII. l'an. 1643; nel rifare le mura di questa parte della Città, la ritirò indietro, e poi Innocenzo X. la ornò come si vede. Più oltre sulla medesima via furono scoperti alcuni cimiteri di ss. Martiri, e sulla spiaggia del fiume evvi una piccola chiesa della ss. Vergine, che da' marinari viene detta del Buonviaggio, e più avanti altra, ma molto antica, dedicata a s. Prassede, che dal volgo è detta s. Passera. Fu questa edificata l'anno 400. da Teodora matrona Romana, e vi si vedono le immagini de' ss. Ciro e Giovanni martiri Alessandrini, i quali furono ivi sepolti da s. Innocenzo I.