Overview
Porta San Sebastiano is the best-preserved gate in the great city walls built by Emperor Aurelius in the third century AD. Since then, it has marked the entrance to the city for those coming from the Appian Way: endless generations of Romans and foreigners have passed under its large circular brick towers, proceeding in the direction of the Eternal City. Once known as Porta Appia, Porta San Sebastiano took on this name with the gradual growth in importance of the Basilica of St Sebastian Outside the Walls, included in the Pilgrimage of the Seven Churches that touches the main places of Catholic worship in the city.
The municipality of Rome had no choice but to choose this thousand-year-old site as the site for the Museum of the Walls, an exhibition entirely dedicated to the history of the city walls.
