Porta Magenta

Porta Magenta
Quartiere of Milan
Corso Magenta, with the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in the background
Country	Italy
Region	Lombardy
Province	Milan
Comune	Milan
Zone	7
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)

Porta Magenta, formerly known as Porta Vercellina, was one of the city gates of Milan, Italy. The gate was established in the 9th century, with the Roman walls of the city; it was moved with the medieval and Spanish walls, and was finally demolished in the 19th century. The phrase "Porta Magenta" is now used to refer to the district ("quartiere") where the gate used to be; the district is part of the Zone 7 administrative division of Milan, west of the city centre.

Both names "Porta Magenta" and "Porta Vercellina" refer to cities located west of Milan (respectively Magenta and Vercelli). The former name was after Vercelli as the gate controlled the road connecting Milan to this city; the latter name was chosen to celebrate the Battle of Magenta, a decisive victory in the Second Italian War of Independence.

A Porta Vercellina was part of the Roman walls of Milan; it was located in what is now Via San Giovanni sul Muro, at the corner of Via Meravigli. The gate was probably restructured (but not relocated) in the Roman Empire era. There are no remnants of the Roman gate, although the area houses some of the best preserved Roman relics of Milan, namely part of the Imperial Palace (in Via Brisa), the "Anspertus Tower" (later adapted as a clocktower of the Maggiore monastery), and part of the foundations of the walls themselves.

In the 12th century, after Frederick I Barbarossa conquered and ravaged Milan, a new fortified walls system was built, enclosing a larger area, and Porta Vercellina was thus moved west, farther from the centre, to what is now Via Carducci, between the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio and the Sforza Castle. A moat and a drawbridge were added to the gate. In the Middle Ages, the name "Porta Vercellina" began to identify the rione as well as the gate; the rione had its own coat of arms. The only remnant of the medieval walls is a statue of Mary and Baby, now housed by the nearby Church of San Nicolao (Nicholas of Flüe).