Porta San Giacomo — Venice Draws a New Defensive Line
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Transcript
The white-marble Porta San Giacomo belongs to the massive fortification programme begun after Bergamo came under Venetian rule. In the sixteenth century the Republic of Venice rebuilt the upper city’s defences with bastioned walls suited to artillery. Creating them required demolition and reshaping neighbourhoods around the perimeter.
The gate is elegant because military architecture also represented the state. The winged lion of Saint Mark identifies who paid for and controlled this threshold.
UNESCO now recognizes the Venetian defensive works as part of a transnational system stretching across Italy, Croatia and Montenegro. Seen that way, Bergamo’s walls are not merely local scenery. They were one node in a republic trying to secure its mainland frontier.