The Walls of Pope Urban

The “Urbaniane” Walls were built in 1642 by Pope Urban VIII Barberini when the War of Castro made it was necessary to protect the Janiculum Hill area, which partly extended outside the ancient circle of the Aurelian Walls. The project was entrusted to Cardinal Vincenzo Maculano da Fiorenzuola assisted by the architect Marcantonio De Rossi and was completed in 1644, under the pontificate of Innocent X Pamphilj.

The defensive system, about three and a half kilometres long, starts near Porta Cavalleggeri in the Vatican, and continues on the steepest part of the hill towards Porta San Pancrazio, the ancient Porta Aurelia. The walls then descend steeply towards Porta Portese (moved further north from the ancient Porta Portuensis).

The design follows the western slopes of the Janiculum Hill with a wall that has a low and massive line. There was a series of bastions with orillions – the flank of bastion where the embrasure was hidden by a curved projection that defended it from the enemy’s cannonade – based on the system of grazing defence, with casemates in the flanks and troniere or gun port openings in the parapets. Made of scarp brickwork, the walls have a linear decoration consisting of a torus cornice, travertine plinths, curbs and corners and marble plaques with bas-reliefs of the papal coat of arms, crowned by a triregnum and keys. In the joining walls are posterns, also made of travertine, crowned with papal coats of arms. For the section of wall near Porta Portese, in particular, materials from the demolition of some sections of the Aurelian Walls outside the new pomerio were used.

The Walls remained under the jurisdiction of the Reverend Apostolic Chamber until 1847 when Pope Pius IX with a Motu Proprio [edict] entrusted their custody and management to the Municipality of Rome. Damaged in the bombardment by French troops during the Roman Republic of 1849, they were radically restored by architects Luigi Poletti and Virginio Vespignani in the mid-19th century.

With the Unification of Italy, the city wall first lost its defensive role, then that of a customs post, and was finally sacrificed at several points to create the gates required to manage the new traffic flows in the capital.