017.

Porta Fabrica

The Porta Fabrica was the service entrance to the Vatican area, provided especially for the building materials needed for the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. Indeed the "Fabbrica di S. Pietro" (fabbricare meaning to build) refers to the specific institution responsible for that lengthy endeavor which lasted for most of the 16th and 17th centuries. The gate was formerly known as Porta delle Fornaci (Falda in his 1676 map labels it Porta Fabrica delle Fornaci) because of the adjacent Valle delle Fornaci where numerous fornaci (brickyards and kilns). Nolli identifies no less than five fornaci within 100 meters of the gate. One of these, the Fornace Riccardi, appears at the right edge of the print. Behind it is the Janiculum hill which Vasi labels Monte di S. Onofrio (4) upon which a section of the city walls is discernible. The flank of St. Peter's (1) and one of the small domes (2) is visible behind the wall, as well as the roof of the Cavalleggieri barracks (3); see Plate 16. Today the gate is still in place but bricked up and half buried due to the raising of the street level in the early 20th century. The coat of arms of Clement XI (1700-21), identifiable on the print, is still in place above the sealed gate. Below the arms is another marble tablet with two vertical keys and the letters F A signifying Fabbrica Apostolica.