Etruscan Arch

Is it worth the trip?

If you are in Perugia, yes: it costs nothing, and the gate is the most intact and monumental of the city’s ancient gates (it.wikipedia). Ten minutes are enough for the gate itself; the stretch of wall beside it adds a few more.

Be clear about what it is. It is an Etruscan city gate that Rome took over, repaired and inscribed, not a Roman building, and the Roman part a visitor can pick out for certain is the lettering. As a reason on its own to travel to Perugia for Roman remains, it is thin; as the start of a walk round the gates of the ancient circuit, below, it is the best of them.

Getting there

The gate stands in Piazza Fortebraccio (the Comune di Perugia). A bus stop named Arco Etrusco is about 30 m away, the Pincetto station of the Minimetrò is about 470 m away, and the Perugia Sant’Anna railway station about 930 m. The nearest car parks are Parcheggio Sant’Antonio, multi-storey, about 150 m away, and Piazza Piccinino, about 180 m; both charge (OpenStreetMap).

There is no ticket and no opening time: the gate is a public street, and the Comune lists it as wheelchair accessible (the Comune di Perugia tourism page, as archived on 7 July 2025). The loggia on the tower is part of the offices of the Soprintendenza for Umbria and is normally closed to the public; it opens only on occasional guided visits that must be booked, most recently on 6 and 7 September 2025, when its terrace gave a view over the north side of the city (the Ministry of Culture).

The other gates of the circuit

The walls ran for about 2.9 km round the city, built of travertine blocks laid without mortar (en.wikipedia). Two of their gates keep a round ancient arch, this one and Porta Marzia; three more still stand in the line of the walls but were given pointed arches in the 14th century (it.wikipedia; fr.wikipedia). All four lie within about 700 m of the Etruscan Arch as the crow flies, linked by the hillside streets of the old town and, at Sant’Ercolano, a long flight of steps.

• Porta Marzia, about 700 m south, is the one with the most to show for the Roman period. Dated to the 3rd century BC, it was taken down in 1540 by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and rebuilt about four metres from its old position in the outer wall of the Rocca Paolina, the fortress Pope Paul III had built. Its travertine arch is framed by pilasters and topped by a balustrade with five sculptures: Jupiter between Castor and Pollux, the city’s protectors, with their horses at each end. AVGVSTA PERVSIA is cut on the architrave over the arch and COLONIA VIBIA on the cornice above (it.wikipedia; de.wikipedia).
• Arco di Sant’Ercolano, also called Porta Cornea, about 600 m south, stands over the steps of the same name. It was rebuilt in the 14th century with a pointed arch, and the lion over the outer arch is a 13th-century emblem of the Guelph party (it.wikipedia; fr.wikipedia).
• Porta Eburnea, or Arco della Mandorla, about 700 m south-west in Piazza Mariotti, keeps its original travertine blocks up to the springing of the arch, which was rebuilt as a pointed arch in the 14th century. A lion’s head from the ancient gate survives, with a few letters that probably belonged to the same AVGVSTA PERVSIA – COLONIA VIBIA inscription (it.wikipedia; fr.wikipedia).
• Porta Trasimena, also called Porta San Luca, about 500 m west, faced the road to Lake Trasimeno, which gave it its name. Its round arch was made pointed in the 14th century; on its left side, above a niche, are a travertine lion and the Roman inscription AVGVSTA PERVSIA – COLONIA VIBIA (fr.wikipedia).

History

Perusia was one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan league. It first appears in the account of the war between Etruscans and Romans of 310 or 309 BC, joined the rebellion of 295 BC and sued for peace the following year; in the Second Punic War it supported Rome, and the circuit of walls that made the city so hard to take was built in that period (it.wikipedia). De.wikipedia suggests that the gate was probably built new in the existing Etruscan wall in the middle of the 3rd century BC, when the Via Amerina was extended to Perusia: the road entered the town through Porta Marzia and left it again through this gate.

In the civil war, Lucius Antonius, brother of Mark Antony, held the city, and Octavian besieged it for about seven months until it surrendered in 40 BC; the siege ended with the city burning (it.wikipedia). The city was then restored under Augustus’s patronage, with families loyal to him, the Vibii above all, put in charge, and AVGVSTA PERVSIA was carved on the gate (it.wikipedia). Pleiades describes the gate as “refashioned under Augustus”.

The second inscription, COLONIA VIBIA, records the rank of Roman colony granted between 251 and 253 AD under Trebonianus Gallus, who came from Perusia and belonged, like his son and co-emperor Volusianus, to the gens Vibia (it.wikipedia; de.wikipedia). The loggia on the left tower was added in the 16th century and the fountain below it completed in 1621 (it.wikipedia; en.wikipedia).