questa pagina in italiano

The gates have been existing since the dawn of the humanity; the only characteristic with the Romans was the name of some of them: when from a castrum (a military fort) a town was developed, city gates kept ther original denomination: according to the position (on the cardus or the decumanus in the cities, as for the via principalis or the via praetoria in the forts): Porta Praetoria, Porta Principalis Dextra (rigth) or Sinistra (left), Porta Decumana.

Usually you find 4 different types of gates:

• one fornix 
• gemina (double entrance)
• trigemina (triple entrance)
• with cavedium (one gate after another with an internal difendible space).

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