At the crossroads between Corso Palizzi and Corso Dante Alighieri, or between what were, respectively, the Cardo and the Decumanus of the Roman Histonium, if we continue towards the city center, we can cross an arch located below Palazzo Monteferrante, a neoclassical work by Nicola Maria Pietrocola, who takes us to Largo dei Quattro Forni.
If we had crossed this same passage six hundred or seven hundred years ago, we would have entered the city of Guasto d’Aymone through the earthen gate of the Angevin-era walls.
Evidence of the presence of the ancient walls can be seen by turning from the open road into Vico Tacito, where we can observe the back of Palazzo Monteferrante, which presents the classic “shoe” shape of the ancient walls, in which the wider base gradually narrowed to give support to walls made mostly of stone.
Furthermore, exploring the streets of this part of the San Pietro district, it is clear that the medieval layout is still present, made up of alleys wide enough to allow the passage of a person, while the area outside the Angevin walls, called not by chance “Spanish expansion”, is made up of wide streets taken from the previous Roman urban structure.
Another element of interest is the presence, at the beginning of via Valerico Laccetti, of the so-called Small Cisterns, currently private property and, therefore, not open to visits. It is a structure part of the ancient Roman aqueduct of Murello, which served this part of the city and supplied the nearby Roman Baths.
In Largo dei quattro forni, outside the city’s monumental routes, we therefore have the opportunity to admire a stratification of works from different eras.
Below us the Roman structure, next to us the medieval walls and, above us, the neoclassical work of Pietrocola, the architect who better than any other, was able to recover and integrate the old walls into the organic design of a expanding city.
