The Porta San Marco in Viterbo is located in a section of the city wall built in 1208 that runs along the Santa Rosa Monastery. Next to the gate is a modern statue of the Madonna.
Porta San Marco Viterbo
Address and opening times
The address of the Porta San Marco is Via del Teatro Nuovo, snc. The gate can be viewed from the outside.
History and description
The Porta San Marco was built around the year 1213 and was originally used for the landowners who owned land on the foothills of the Palanzana hill.
In the year 1237, the expansion of the quarry in front of the gate was decreed. At the time the wall ran from the Porta San Pietro to the Porta San Sisto to the Porta San Marco.
A restoration of the gate took place in 1486, and it was closed a few years after that.
It was not until 1887, during road works, that the Porta San Marco was rediscovered. In 1960 the wall closing the gate was knocked down.
Next to the Porta San Marco you can see a large opening supported by columns. This was called the Gabbia del Crocco and it was through this opening that water used to flow into Viterbo. This small river used to be called the Sonza and was later renamed the Urcionio. A plaque written in Latin refers to a 1223 flood that destroyed a large part of the city and cost the lives of many people.
Madonna statue
For a while, the gate was used as an aedicula and a statue of the Madonna stood there, but since 2010 it again serves as the gateway to Viterbo.
Since 2012, there is a new statue of the Madonna to the left of the gate (seen from outside).