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We have news about its existence already at the end of the twelfth century, in the award of the Sienese consuls Iacopo “Arungerius” and Altovito who on 8 November 1198 pronounced themselves in the dispute between Orvieto and Acquapendente on the demolition of the walls,
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GATE OF SAN LEONARDO
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
We have news about its existence already at the end of the twelfth century, in the award of the Sienese consuls Iacopo “Arungerius” and Altovito who on 8 November 1198 pronounced themselves in the controversy between Orvieto and Acquapendente on the demolition of the walls, after the war of 1197, during which this city had been forcibly occupied by Viterbo and Orvieto. The judges ruled in favor of the latter and ordered the demolition of the walls of two hundred feet along the entire enclosure and of forty-five near the gates, which, however, were not to be demolished: among them is mentioned Porta S. Leonardo and this places it construction in the twelfth century. The destructions and renovations that followed one another throughout the thirteenth century, mainly due to the continuing disputes with the city of Orvieto, influenced the consistency of the walls. However, we know that the stretch visible today along the Cassia and including Porta San Leonardo can be dated to that period. In the sixteenth door San Leonardo, remembered as a “double door”, is mentioned in the sources on the occasion of the adaptation of the entire wall to the advent of firearms through the construction of towers, embankments and loopholes. The further changes made around the middle of the seventeenth century probably did not affect the structure of the gate, since very few changes were foreseen on the walls, preferring, due to the short time and the small expenditure, the construction of fortifications on the ground with bundles and excavations.
