Porta del Popolo

Built under Emperor Aurelian in the third century, this door was also known as Porta Flaminia because the Via Flaminia came out from it and still does.

Its current appearance, very different from the original one, is the result of a 16th-century reconstruction. Pope Pius IV commissioned Michelangelo to restore the external facade. The great artist transferred the task to Nanni di Baccio Bigio who created it between 1562 and 1565, inspired by the Arch of Titus. The four columns that decorate the facade come from the ancient basilica of St. Peter. In 1638, near the door opening, the two statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, made by Francesco Mochi, were inserted.

The internal façade is by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Pope Alexander VII and was carried out on the occasion of the arrival in Rome, on 23 December 1655, of Queen Christina of Sweden, following her conversion to Christianity, as the epigraph also recalls placed under the Chigi coat of arms.