Parker, John Henry: The archaeology of Rome (1,text): I. The primitive fortifications (Oxford [u.a.], 1874)

SECT. IV.]

Circuit of the Walls.

159

It is difficult to trace the wall on the southern side of the Leonine
city. The Vatican Hill had been occupied and perhaps rudely
fortified from the time of the Kings, and there was a Palace on
the same site in the time of the Empire, with gardens attached.
S. Peter’s was originally within that Palace, on the site of the
Temple of Apollo, under which was a Catacomb which was the
burial-place of the early bishops of Rome, and a church, we read,
was built over the Catacomb in the time of Constantine, so that
the whole district had probably some kind of fortification.
The very picturesque round towers and walls of Leo IV., with
their projecting parapet boldly corbelled out, remain in many parts,
chiefly in the garden of the Vatican, but most of the parapets and
corbelling have been renewed in the fifteenth century, when the
Vatican Palace was rebuilt. The walls of the present museum
and library are part of the work of that period.
There are several gates remaining in the portion of the old wall
that is preserved, some of which have corresponding openings through
the modern wall, others have not.
Beginning from the Castle of S. Angelo, the first is called Porta
di Castello, and occurs in both walls, with a short street connect-
ing them.
2. The name of Porta Angelica is now given to the second aper-
ture in the outer circuit, and a street called the Via Angelica con-
nects it with the old gate opening into the Piazza di San Pietro;
this gate is said to have been named from the sculptures of angels
upon the outer gateway. There are at present three other gates
through the old wall at the end of the streets in the southern part of
the Borgo. The old gate was called Porta S. Petri; there were two
gates of that name, one from the city, the other from the country.
3. Porta S. Peregrino, which is said to have been the name of
one of the three original gates of Leo IV., and to be so called
from a church of the same name behind the Pontifical Palace near
the Porta Angelica. It seems more probable that it was a popular
name for one of the gates near S. Peter’s, much used by the pil-
grims—Pellegrini.
4. Porta Saxonia is believed to have been one of these posterns
near the church of S. Spirito in Sassia; it was also called Porta Nova
in the fifteenth century, which probably shews that it was then re-
cently made in the Leonine wall.
5. Porta Viridaria is said to have been a name for one of the
three gates of Leo IV., opening into his garden.
The present Vatican Palace is a building of the fifteenth century,