Porta San Giovanni is a gate in the Aurelian Wall of Rome, Italy, named after the nearby Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.

Popular tradition insists the architect was Della Porta, for he died in crowds at the gate, "which he had built" of violent indigestion brought on by melons and watermelons, returning from a trip to the Castelli Romani.

The commemorative inscription above the arch reads: Its design is conceived as more like the entrance to a villa than as a defensive work, lacking side towers, ramparts, and battlements, and marked instead by pronounced rustication work and by a simple decorative scheme composed of a large bearded head atop the arch on the external side.

According to legend, on that night the ghost of Herodias, who had convinced her husband Herod Antipas to decapitate John the Baptist, organizes a witches' sabbath on the Lateran meadows – to chase them away, the Romans organised a big party with rattles and fireworks.

The modern Appio-Latino quarter, now outside the gate, was set up in 1926 by demolishing and building over houses, cottages, vineyards, inns, and meadows.