Porta Ardeatina was one of the gates of the Aurelian Walls in Rome (Italy).

The gate was probably locked very soon (it is no more mentioned starting from 8th century); on the base of the present remains, it can arguably be classified as a simple postern, framed with travertine, whose most interesting characteristic is the presence, both inside and outside the wall, of a stretch of paved road dating from the Roman period, in which the tracks left by carts traffic – that should have been quite intense – are still visible.

The gate had no defensive towers: this lack was fixed by means of a projection of the wall, which could therefore serve as a little rampart.

According to a statement by the humanist and historian Poggio Bracciolini, Porta Ardeatina bore the usual memorial plate, commemorating the restoration carried out by Emperor Honorius in 401–403.

Media related to Porta Ardeatina at Wikimedia Commons This article contains text from Platner and Ashby's A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, a text now in the public domain.