La porta urbica, come un doppio fondale monumentale di strade intramuros ed extramuros nel Mediterraneo medievale: Genova XII secolo

The 12th century represents a fundamental turning point on an urban planning level for the important structural transformations of Genoa and for the image of the city that arises from it. In the short period between 1155 and 1160, politicians, workers, artisans, and the ‘people’ themselves were involved in the ‘epic’ construction of the new city walls of Genoa which was precisely determined by the threat of Barbarossa. In particular, the four inscriptions on the two surviving monumental gates of Sant’ Andrea to the east and of Santa Fede to the west of the city, which recall the context in which the walls were built, give them a further symbolic meaning and the city glories. The essay, through iconographic, material, and historical sources, analyzes the fundamental role assumed by the two city gates as monumental backdrops for the main urban and extra-urban arteries, and their relationship with the road axes of the city, also established by regulations, as clearly demonstrated by the consular awards of the 12th century. Furthermore, the architecture of the two main city gates takes on a special importance and meaning, from an town planning, celebratory and highly communicative point of view. And all this especially in an historical moment in which the Cathedral, despite being perceived as the symbolic building of the community, did not yet have a finished façade (in fact San Lorenzo was consecrated in 1118, but in 1174 it was not yet completed).