Porta Maggiore

Monti, Esquilino & San Lorenzo


Porta Maggiore was built by order of the Emperor Claudius in AD 52. Then, as now, it was a major road junction under which passed the two main southbound roads, Via Prenestina and Via Labicana (modern-day Via Casilina). The arch supported two aqueducts – the Acqua Claudia and the Acqua Aniene Nuova – and was later incorporated into the Aurelian Wall.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Monti, Esquilino & San Lorenzo attractions

1. Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti

0.22 MILES

This little-known museum behind the church of Santa Croce stands on the site of the former home of St Helena. It’s undeservedly but refreshingly deserted,…

2. Chiesa di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

0.23 MILES

One of Rome’s seven pilgrimage churches, the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem was founded in 320 by St Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, in…

3. Museo Storico della Liberazione

0.48 MILES

The apartment block at Via Tasso 145 was the headquarters of the German SS during the Nazi occupation of Rome (1943–44), and now a small and sombre museum…

4. Triclinium Leoninum

0.5 MILES

This showy brick facade adorned with a gold apse mosaic is an 18th-century reconstruction of the end wall of the banqueting hall in the original Palazzo…

6. Fondazione Pastificio Cerere

0.53 MILES

A former pasta factory that hung up its spaghetti racks in 1960 after 55 years of business, this is now a contemporary art hub, with regular shows in the…

7. Trofei di Mario

0.55 MILES

These ruins are the remains of a monumentally grandiose fountain built by emperor Alexander Severus to mark the end of an aqueduct. This principle of a…

8. Palazzo Laterano

0.59 MILES

Palazzo Laterano was the official papal residence until the pope moved to the Vatican in 1377. Adjacent to the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, it's…