Porta alla Croce, Florence

The Porta alla Croce is a former gate of the Walls of Florence, locate east of the neighborhood of Santa Croce, in the Piazza Beccaria of Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.

The gate was part of the fourth set of walls around Florence built in the late 13th century.

[1] The Gate was refurbished in 1817-1818 under the reign of Grand Duke Ferdinando III of Lorraine, and in the outer lunette has a much degraded fresco depicting the Virgin and Saints by Michele Tosini.

[2] The urban renewal of Florence (1865-1871) directed by Giuseppe Poggi demolished the walls and left this and other gates isolated in a traffic circles.

Finally a third plaque states that in 1817, "Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, father of the citizens... to ensure a gain of wealthy classes in periods of poor harvests and boost trade, he opened with great commitment of spending, new ways by which to connect a carriage road from here to the upper valley of the Arno, Casentino and Romagna and because at the same time he restored this door and made more elegant and functional, demolishing blighted buildings that were pushed together and equalizing the level entry and exit.