Ettore Roesler Franz and Bygone Rome

Today St.Paul's Gate, with its railway station, subway station and many bus stops is an important junction for the city's traffic. But still in the late 1800s this used to be the gate through which travellers entered Rome coming from the south-west, particularly along via Ostiensis, the road that connected the city to its main port, Ostia. Also the original name of the gate used to be Ostiensis, but in the early Middle Ages it was renamed after the great basilica of St.Paul Outside the Walls, that stands about 1.5 km or 1 mile off this spot along the aforsaid road, still called via Ostiense.
The painting features the inner side of the gate [1], which has kept its original 3rd century structure, consisting in a double archway, made of stone and bricks, connected to the set of walls that ran all around the city. In the middle ages the left archway [2] was walled up; a further medieval addition is the small shrine dedicated to St.Peter [3], hanging above the other archway.

	In the painting we see how the gate was still actually used for entering and exiting the city, as no further passage crossed the wall. By the end of the 19th century the city expanded beyond this spot, a new district was built, the roads became busy, and the traffic grew heavier and heavier. So the walls on both sides of the gate, rather damaged, were cut through in order to create a larger passage for cars and buses, without having to remove the gate itself; its walled archway was also reopened. In more recent times the gate was throughoutly restored, and closed with an iron fencing so to preserve its inner court.

In the painting we see how the gate was still actually used for entering and exiting the city, as no further passage crossed the wall. By the end of the 19th century the city expanded beyond this spot, a new district was built, the roads became busy, and the traffic grew heavier and heavier. So the walls on both sides of the gate, rather damaged, were cut through in order to create a larger passage for cars and buses, without having to remove the gate itself; its walled archway was also reopened. In more recent times the gate was throughoutly restored, and closed with an iron fencing so to preserve its inner court.

Also the famous pyramid of Gaius Caestius [4] standing next to the gate, crossed by the city wall, is still there, although today its view from the square is completely covered by the trees.