Etruscan Arch
A monument and icon of Perugia, the Etruscan Arch or Arco d’Augusto is the only one of the six city gates that has not undergone considerable changes. An elegant Renaissance loggia at the top and a 17th-century fountain at the bottom of the left tower are the only subsequent additions.
Built from large blocks of travertine laid without mortar, the gate faces north, in the direction of Gubbio. It is composed of two trapezoid-shaped towers tapering toward the top and by an ornamental façade with the arch set obliquely to the wall. The round arch is formed by a double ring of smooth, narrow wedges defined by a cornice with a simple cavetto molding. The words AUGUSTA PERUSIA appear on the two arched lintels, and inscription added in Roman times. Two formless sandstone blocks, the remains of two heads of deities, protectors of the city, are inserted at the sides. Running above the arch is a frieze, composed of metopes with round shields and triglyphs with pilasters, surmounted by Italic Ionic capitals, topped with two projecting cornices. The lower bears the inscription COLONIA VIBIA, added by the emperor of Perugian origin, C. Vibius Trebonianus Gallus (251-253 AD).
Above the frieze there is a second arch, framed by a cornice and flanked by smooth pilasters and capitals with a large flower at the center.
The monument dates from the second half of the 3rd century BC, together with the sections of city wall nearby. Porta Marzia, of which only the upper part remains, is inserted in the bastion of the Rocca Paolina, although it was recomposed and moved a few meters by Antonio da Sangallo in the 16th century. The arch, a simple circle of stone voussoirs with an external molding, is flanked by two heads, possibly of protector deities of the city.
Above a kind of loggia, closed off below by a screen and supported by fluted pilasters with capitals, there are the carved busts of three persons and two horse heads at the sides. Two Roman inscriptions, AUGUSTA PERUSIA and COLONIA VIBIA AUGUSTA, recall the benefices received from Augustus and the ius coloniae granted by Trebonianus Gallus