Description
Porta Sant'Antonio Abate is one of the surviving gateways in the medieval walls of Campobasso, on the west side of the old town, next to the church it is named after. It's a piece of the 15th century still standing among the houses.
The gate is a simple round arch framed in rusticated stone. High up on the left you can still see the coat of arms of the Monforte, the counts who had it built, which dates it to 1463; in the 18th century it was thoroughly renovated.
Alongside the arch runs a long wall, once part of the defenses and now absorbed into the homes, ending in a round watchtower with a sloping base. A few steps farther on is the church of Sant'Antonio Abate, the city's richest in Baroque art.
It is one of the six gates recalled by the six crenellated towers on Campobasso's coat of arms. A popular belief holds that a secret passage, now walled up, ran from the dungeons of the Castello Monforte down the hillside to this very gate.
The gate is a simple round arch framed in rusticated stone. High up on the left you can still see the coat of arms of the Monforte, the counts who had it built, which dates it to 1463; in the 18th century it was thoroughly renovated.
Alongside the arch runs a long wall, once part of the defenses and now absorbed into the homes, ending in a round watchtower with a sloping base. A few steps farther on is the church of Sant'Antonio Abate, the city's richest in Baroque art.
It is one of the six gates recalled by the six crenellated towers on Campobasso's coat of arms. A popular belief holds that a secret passage, now walled up, ran from the dungeons of the Castello Monforte down the hillside to this very gate.