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At Trastevere, the historic district of Rome, is very easy to come across something that smells of... ancient! Personally I love to tour here, through the narrow and historic alleys of this very famous neighborhood of Rome, because there is always a surprise around the corner.
Try, for example, to go around the famous Piazza Trilussa, one of the centers of the Roman nightlife, that can be reached passing above the famous Ponte Sisto. Shortly after you may find yourself in front of a fortified entrance still today completely shrouded in mystery... I'm talking about the so-called Porta Settimiana, with its typical battlements added by the pope Alexander VI Borgia at the end of the fifteenth century. He, however, was only one of the last who restored this gate, or rather an entrance which, as often happens in Rome, has a history spanning centuries. Despite of what Tito Livio wrote about this entrance portal that should date back to the royal age, the hypothesis say that for the first time a sort of gate or entrance was erected at the behest of Septimius Severus, emperor of the third century a.D.. Perhaps it served as an entrance to the Geta Horti (his son Caracalla's, who probably killed him as you can read here) or, perhaps, it was one of the arches of an aqueduct built here. As often happens, the news is confused and multiple, giving from a certain point of view a sense of mystery and unsolved even in a small, but picturesque, Roman monument. It is thought, in fact, that the term Settimiana derives from the two Latin words septentrio and Ianus, respectively north and Janus. All this would indicate that this gate was built to the north of a temple, actually existing, dedicated to Janus.
What we are sure of today is that the portal represents the northern vertex of the hypothetical triangle that the Aurelian Walls conceived by turning around the Trastevere area, providing the entire area with the protection necessary for a city such as Rome which, at the end of the third century a.D., certainly needed more protection. Surely the Porta Settimiana, especially during the fifteenth century, became a very important place and area for the locals because, as it happens still today, it represented one of the ancient viae rectae of the city. Via della Lungara, in fact, was widely used by all those who wanted to reach St. Peter's Basilica, passing from the right bank of the Tiber. And, after all, in a holy city like Rome there were so many who needed to reach the Vatican area that a road like this one was really necessary. Despite everything, today we still have a very picturesque atmosphere here, with this crenellated entrance that has spanned the centuries without, with certainty, its origins being discovered. Today, therefore, it is nice to indicate Porta Settimiana as the right and decent portal that allows us to enter Via della Lungara, precisely one of the historic streets of Rome…