Torre "Il Portonàt"

At the northern threshold of the city, where Via Mazzini slips in from the plain, stands Torre “Il Portonàt”, a stone tower built on a regular plan. It is a gate, but a gate with pretensions. Its main face is a confident piece of civic architecture: a broad, round arch of radial rusticated voussoirs, flanked by projecting pilasters that support a frieze carved with triglyphs and bucrania, ox skulls, a motif borrowed from classical temples. Above this runs a moulded cornice, bearing a small balcony with stone balusters.

The other side, on Piazza Alighieri, is deliberately sparse. Here the same arch is framed in stone blocks of alternating size, but nothing else disturbs the wall. The windows on both elevations are simply dressed: rusticated frames to the north, more delicate moulded architraves to the south. The tower marks a transition, not just from road to city, but from one architectural mood to another.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.