Porta San Donato


Western side of the town, Porta Vittorio Emanuele II (or Porta S.Anna)

The Old Porta S. Donato stands at the crossing between Via S. Paolino and Via S. Tommaso and is set back from the current city walls. It was named after the High Middle Ages church, which was demolished 80 years before the construction of the gate (1590) by Paolo da Cremona and Michelangelo Gabrielli, who were in charge of the works. The plan was instead worked out by Ginese Bresciani, an engineer from Emilia. Its structure, which is covered with bricks and located slantwise in comparison with the line of the city walls, has almost no ornaments. The inside façade faces the town centre; in the upper part we can see a portico, which allowed the watch to go from one part to another of the building.
This portico is also on top of the other gates of the city walls.

The outer façade is characterised by the architectural elements used for the fortification of buildings. The door has a border of verrucano (a sedimentary rock), while the lintel props up a temple-shaped structure, where the events of town life were performed.
The three niches are still visible: the central oval one, which once contained a statue of the Virgin Mary and the two side one, where once there were two lion's statues.

The building rises today on the west side of the city, that is Piazzale Verdi, which was known as "Prato del Marchese" (Marquis' Grass) till the twenties. This part of the town was at the beginning outside the city walls and was integrated in the town only around the half of the 17th century. Most likely the green area stretched as far as the river Serchio. From the half of the 18th century and all the 19th century long, the bulwark was used first as a wheat warehouse, then as a workshop for the manufacturing of baked clay and before its demolition as a glassworks.

The Old Porta San Donato