8 - Porta di Parsano

Information

The Porta di Parsano is the southern and most recent gate of the city. It was in fact only built in 1745, after Signor Francesco degli Anastasii, the archbishop’s brother received permission to do so and finance the work. This privilege was given directly by D. Marino to the Correale family. The aim of the Anastasii family was to be able to reach some land they had purchased on the other side of the wall without having to go round its entire perimeter. It seems however that the Spanish reconstruction project already included a “war passage” which means that the “Porta degli Anastasii” was no more than a widening of the previous entrance.

Nevertheless, when excavations were carried out in 1921, what is presumed to be Greek walls came to light. This discovery proved the existence of a gate from earlier epochs. Just like the gate at Marina Grande, stone boulders were also found here, placed according to strict isodomic order suggesting that there were in fact already walls prior to the Roman period of the 1st century AD.