Italy · 12th century
Porta Soprana, also known as Porta di Sant'Andrea (in Ligurian: Pòrta de Sant'Andria), is one of the most celebrated testimonies of medieval architecture in Genoa. Situated at the top of the Piano di Sant'Andrea, the gate owes its historical name to the form Superana, indicating its elevated position above the level of the city below.
Its present architectural configuration derives from the restorations carried out between 1882 and 1914 by Alfredo D'Andrade, who rebuilt the structure according to the appearance it would have had in the 12th century, during the building of the third city wall, known as the Mura del Barbarossa (1155–1159).
The gate, which marked the entrance to the city for those arriving from the east and from Rome, played a strategic role from the time of the second city wall (9th–10th centuries). This entrance, whose towers can be visited today, is one of the rare surviving openings of the medieval walls, together with Porta dei Vacca. A visit includes the nearby House of Christopher Columbus, today a house-museum, a witness to the historical value of the area.
Machine-translated from “Porta Soprana” on the Italian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Porta Soprana ranks #2,754 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #212 of the 555 mapped in Italy. Founded 1155, it is older than 80% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 763 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,389 times in the last 60 days, more than 60% of the atlas. 21 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.
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