Porta Vittoria (formerly Porta Tosa) was a city gate in the Spanish walls of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. While the walls and the gate have been demolished, the name "Porta Vittoria" has remained to refer to the district ("

quartiere A (; plural: ) is a territorial subdivision of certain Italian towns. The word derives from (‘fourth’) and was thus properly used only for towns divided into four neighborhoods by the two main roads. It has been later used as a synonymous ...

") where the gate used to be. This district is part of the Zone 4 administrative division of Milan.

History

Porta Tosa was the eastern gate of the Spanish walls of Milan, dating back to the 16th century. During the

Five Days of Milan The Five Days of Milan ( ) was an insurrection and a major event in the Revolutionary Year of 1848 that started the First Italian War of Independence. On 18 March, a rebellion arose in the city of Milan, and in five days of street fighting ...

, Porta Tosa was the first to be conquered by the Milanese rebels, on 22 March 1848 (an event known as "The Battle of Porta Tosa"). In 1861, when the Italian unification was completed, the gate was renamed "Porta Vittoria" (Victory Gate) after that victorious episode. What remained of the Spanish walls and gates was demolished in the 19th century. In 1881, Giuseppe Grandi designed an

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...

to be placed in the square where the gate used to be; it was inaugurated on 18 March 1895. Porta vittoria 1886.jpg, The Porta Vittoria bridge in the 19th century Milano, Castello sforzesco - Donna impudica sec. XII - da Porta Tosa - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto 6-gen-2007 - 01.jpg, 13th century bas-relief from Porta Tosa. It has been suggested that the woman showing off her

genitalia A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...

might be a provocative representation of

Frederick I Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt o ...

's wife.

The district

The centre of the Porta Vittoria district is the square where Grandi's obelisk is located; this square is now called Piazza Cinque Giornate ("Five Days Square"). Most streets, avenues, and square in the district are named after heroes and prominent events of the Milanese

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

and the Five Days. A large avenue crossing Piazza Cinque Giornate in east-west direction is called Corso di Porta Vittoria to the west and Corso 22 Marzo to the west. In the north-south direction, the Piazza is crossed by one of the main ring roads of Milan, the Circonvallazione Interna ("inner ringroad", as opposed to the Circonvallazione Esterna, the "outer ringroad" which embraces a much wider area). In the Porta Vittoria district, the Circonvallazione Interna is composed of streets Viale Montenero and Viale Regina Margherita. The area is mostly a shopping district, with Piazza Cinque Giornate, as well as the two Corso's, being lined with large stores and shops. To the east, it borders on Città Studi ("city of the studies"), where major universities of Milan have their headquarters.

External links

{{coord, 45, 27, 44, N, 9, 12, 26, E, region:IT_source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title Districts of Milan