Old Gateway (Roman Arch)

The Old Gateway or Roman Arch is not a Roman arch as was once presumed, but was in fact the main entrance to the central compound of the Roman Tarsatica in late antiquity, an ancient town on whose ruins medieval Rijeka was built. The instincts of Rijeka’s populace in calling this ancient monument simply the Gateway have been proved right, the epithet Roman Arch being gradually accepted since Classicism, when it started to be documented and researched. This Principia was the main centre, supply base and the starting point of the Alpine enclosure, composed of scores of kilometers of protective walls, turrets, guard-houses and larger fortifications usually on high ground which were able to signal to one another, all built with the aim of blocking barbarian incursions towards Italy, the centre of the Roman Empire.