To guarantee the harbour’s safety and the provisioning of Rome, a wall was built around the port towards the late 5th century AD. Much of the wall circuit was built against pre-existing buildings, thereby limiting the expenditure of time and materials to the bare essential. An example of this is the construction of the western portion of the walls (so-called “Antemurale”), whose irregular shape is due to the reuse of more ancient structures. In this section, the fortification reached the total trickness of about 3 meters, while incorporating the external frontage of two Late Antique warehouses.
Aerial view of the Antemurale with the quay
Survey of the Antemurale viewed from the quay
Plan view of the Antemurale
(L. Paroli e G.Ricci, 2011)
Restorations of the Antemurale’s brick curtain done in the Middle Ages
View of the Antemurale from above