[3] After Rimini's liberation, the south-facing arch was destroyed by the occupying Allied forces to facilitate the passage of tanks through the city.

[3][5] After moving a few metres in 1979,[2][3] Porta Montanara was restored near its original location in 2004,[3][4] at the southern end of Rimini's cardo maximus,[6] on the road to the valley of the Marecchia.

[1][2] The Roman colonia of Ariminum (modern-day Rimini) was initially controlled by Sulla's opponents,[1][7] and briefly sheltered Gnaeus Papirius Carbo in 82 BC.

[4] Porta Montanara was located at the southern end of Ariminum's cardo maximus,[6][8] the principal north–south street (the present-day Via Giuseppe Garibaldi).

[9] It provided access to the road to Arretium (modern-day Arezzo) through the valley of the Marecchia,[1] and to settlements in Rimini's hilly hinterland.

[3][4] It was through the gates of Porta Sant'Andrea that, on 17 June 1528, the troops of the Papal States entered Rimini, definitively ending Malatesta rule.

[12] In the 19th century, the narrowness of the gate led to significant bottlenecks for wagons entering or leaving the city, which were subject to customs checks while passing through.

In 1891, it approved works to widen the surrounding area, recognising the arch as "a great embarrassment to free transit, and some peril to passers-by".

[2][3][4] In 1979, to accommodate the new diocesan offices,[2] it was dismantled and reassembled for a second time in a car park a few metres away,[3][4] behind the apse of the Tempio Malatestiano.

[4] The arch is made from blocks of sandstone from either the nearby Covignano hill or Pietracuta, a village on the Marecchia river in the municipality of San Leo, near the Sammarinese border.

[10] The original position of the demolished gate, 40 metres (130 feet) along Via Garibaldi towards Piazza Tre Martiri, can be observed from cubes of flint in the road's pavement.