Porta Sant'Angelo (Sant’Angelo Gate)
Located in the ancient Sant'Angelo district in Bastia, Porta Sant'Angelo is a remarkable example of medieval architecture that tells the story of the ancient town’s defence system.
The medieval gate is the only one remaining of the five that once opened along the defensive walls built to protect the settlement. Characterized by a pointed arch, it features machicolations for the drawbridge and stone brackets. The battlements were added during a later restoration. Its construction is linked to a decree from 1380, which established the necessity to build 17 bastions to restore the defenses of the Castello della Bastia. In the Middle Ages, Bastia played a strategic role for Assisi, serving as an outpost in the plain of the Chiascio River.
The two slots housed the mechanisms for operating the drawbridge, which was replaced by a masonry bridge in the following centuries. In the early decades of the 20th century, the moat was filled in and the bridge demolished to make way for the roadway. The brick battlements that crown the gate were reconstructed during the 1931 restoration. Near the gate stands the parish church of the same name, the oldest in Bastia.