Porta Pertusa

Porta Pertosa consists of three openings: two secondary entrances on either side of the main gate are flanked by an imposing pediment. Nowadays it is walled and overlooked by the San Giovanni Tower, restored by Pope John XXIII and in which he resided during the last years of his pontificate, and the southwestern bastion of the former Leonine wall. The age of its construction is quite controversial, possibly dating back to the return of the popes from the Avignon Papacy i.e. the end of the fourteenth century when the popes returned to Rome from Avignon with a large entourage and took up definitive residence in the Vatican.