Porta San Pietro - Gate of S. Pietro

The Gate of San Pietro, also known as "Porta Romana" (Roman Gate) because South-oriented, in the direction of Rome, where the Royal and Papal Street was, which used to be walked by the pilgrims.

It belongs to the medieval City walls and it has two façades. The inner façade is the most ancient, dating from 1300, and it has two openings  ̶  one nowadays closed  ̶  from which it takes the old name “Porta alle Due Porte”(Door to the two doors). On the upper part, inside of a recess, a fresco illustrating the Madonna of the Rosary between San Francesco and San Domenico. A gravestone recalls the resistance of the citizens of Perugia against the Papal troops on the 20^th of June 1859.

The outer façade, by Agostino di Duccio and Polidoro di Stefano (1475-1480), is a renaissance work which was imagined as a triumphal arch, reinforced by two towers on the sides. The architecture reminds the Malatestiano Temple of Rimini by Leon Battista Alberti. The arch is incomplete but in the project it was considered to be higher and with a minor arch above, like in the Arco Etrusco. In the cavity between the two façades there are two lateral portals: On the right leading to Gabella (Duty Office), on the left leading to the medieval San Giacomo Church entitled to the saint, protector of pilgrims.