Siena | Porta Romana

Porta Romana is one of the portals in the medieval Walls of Siena. It is located on Via Cassia in Siena, region of Tuscany, Italy. The gate exits near the Basilica of San Clemente and leads south out of town to Via Enea Silvio Piccolomini.
The gate was built in 1327-1328 by Agnolo di Ventura[4] and Agostino di Giovanni, and has a crenellated roofline with machicolation in front gate. The gate is complex, with two separate portals, separated by a small inner court, with the inner gatehouse taller than the outer one. The large arches are faced with travertine marble. The courtyard is surrounded by arrowslits. It was likely that the gate doors could be opened sequentially. The outer portal has a round bas-relief with the Roman Catholic IHS Christogram inside a sun symbol (San Bernardino Christogram).

In 1417, Taddeo di Bartolo was commissioned to paint the Madonna icon on the inner portal, dedicated to the protection of the city. The painting was further retouched by Sassetta and later Sano di Pietro who completed it in 1466. The painting depicted a Glory of Angels in lower arches, and a Coronation of the Virgin in the central arch. Due to the state of decay, the remaining fresco was transferred in 1978 to the Basilica of San Francesco, Siena.°

The history of the Coronation of the Virgin fresco on the Porta Romana in Siena is well known and well documented. In 1416 the city council asked Taddeo di Bartolo to paint a representation of the Madonna on the gate, but he seems not to have embarked on the commission by the time of his death in 1422. New life was breathed into the enterprise in 1442, and in 1447 Sassetta began the work. By the time he died in 1450, he had executed the angel choirs in the vault and had completed the design far the rest of the composition. His place was taken in 1459 by Sano di Pietro, who finished the Coronation of the Virgin almost a decade later. [3]