Pompeii. Porta del Vesuvio or Vesuvian Gate.

Excavated 1811 and 1905.

Part 1.                                        Part 2

 

Pompeii Porta del Vesuvio. July 2003. Looking south-west across Porta Vesuvio.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. 1906 photo, looking north through gate.

The gate is at the northern end of the road that runs through the city to the Porta Stabia.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1906, p. 97, fig. 1.

 

Pompeii Porta del Vesuvio and Castellum Aquae. 1903 photo of water tower and gate after excavation.

The walls of the gate are older than the Castellum Aquae which has been cut into them.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1903, p. 28, fig. 3.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1906, p. 97-100.

 

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. 1906 plan.

According to Sogliano, the gate, like the Porta Stabia consists of three parts.

The passage A is 4.65m wide and 10.20m long.

It consists of two rows of Nocera tufa stone of varying sizes, laid in horizontal rows.

Foundations are of Sarno limestone as can be seen in the west wall.

The east wall only goes a short distance but its thickness of 1.40m can be clearly seen.

On the outside of the west wall the curtain was demolished to make way for the Castellum Aquae which leaned against it.

Along the Western Wall runs a narrow sidewalk which finishes in an angle corner, like the Porta Stabia.

At the south end of the gate are three cippi of lava, as shown on the plan, apparently acting as kerbstones.

 

A second narrower passage B followed, measuring 3.65m wide by 5.15m long, with the eastern side missing entirely.

The Western Wall, well preserved, is composed of blocks of Sarno limestone, laid in horizontal rows.

South edge has a long vertical section recess almost at right angles.

At each of the two northern ends of this narrow passage are two lava blocks [b on the plan], with inserts for the hinges and posts, for the doors which opened inward.

These doors, turning on the hinges, closed against a small block of lava [c on the plan], remaining somewhat raised above the ground, allowed the free drainage of water, which ran down from the heights of Mount Vesuvius.

In the top of the Western Wall there is a square hole and there was undoubtedly another in the opposite wall. These contained the security bar that kept the doors closed.

 

After this second passage, the gate forms a tapering vestibule C, 5.10m wide and 6.10m long, with a sidewalk on the right, going out. The eastern wall is quite destroyed; the other is made with blocks of Nocera Tufa and has a coating made of opus incertum and rusticated blocks of limestone in the corners. This coating, on average 0.58m thick, is a later addition, and it shows that this gate, like all the others in Pompeii, underwent changes over time.

In the south-west corner there was an masonry altar [d on the plan] with edges in relief and dressed entirely in plaster and with a painted representation now completely unrecognizable.

Next to this altar there was another [e on the plan], much smaller, also with an edge in relief.

They were certainly devoted to worship of Lari Pubblici and to the guardian deity of the gate, whose representations would have been painted on the walls, in which the two altars are huddled.

 

At either end of the vestibule [C] are two strong pillars in blocks of limestone and masonry.

The West pillar, somewhat smaller than the other, is 0.90 m from the wall, while the another now missing was undoubtedly to the East wall.

Between the Western pillar and the wall there was a narrow side passage, as at Porta Marina and Herculaneum Gate.

An arch connected the Western pillar with the wall; a second, much larger, joined this same pillar with the Eastern one, and both making a large vault covering the Vestibulum C.

The narrow passage B, with the gate doors, was similarly covered.

Whether passage A was covered or uncovered is not known.

 

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1906, p. 97-100.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. 1906 drawing of masons marks.

According to Sogliano, on blocks of Tufa were these stonemason’s marks.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1906, p. 99.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. September 2011. Looking west to gate. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. September 2011. Looking across gate to west side.

Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. December 2005. Looking north across the south part [A on plan].

On the left is the sidewalk or pavement.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. May 2006. Looking north-west across area A.

 

Pompeii Porta del Vesuvio and Castellum Aquae. May 2006. Looking north from Via del Vesuvio.

 

Pompeii Porta del Vesuvio. June 2012. Looking north through gate.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. May 2006. North end of gate, looking south-east across area C.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. December 2005. Looking south across area C and through gate.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. May 2006. Detail of east side of area C.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. May 2006. West side. Cippus used as kerbstone in north-west corner of area C.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. May 2006. Looking west across areas B and C.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. May 2006. East side of area C, looking north.

 

Vesuvian Gate Pompeii. May 2006. Looking south-west across areas A and B.

The Castellum Aquae or water tower is on the left behind the side of the gate.

 

 

 

Part 2