Porta Alchemica, The Magic Door

Here is a reproduction of the explanation given about this site:

     

     Porta Magica – The “Porta Magica” (Magic Gate) is the only remainder of the Villa that originally belonged to the Marquis Massimiliano Palombara, and which was later passed down to the Massimo family.  It stood between the church of Sant’Eusebio, the ancient “Strada Felice”, and Via San Matteo, in the area which today is largely occupied by Piazza Vittorio. 

     Of Villa Palombara only the gate was saved, perhaps precisely because of its nature as a “curiosity” and the folk legends that had sprung up about its meaning.  The 17^th-century positioning of the gate in the Villa is not known but there is a photograph that predates its transfer to today’s Piazza Vittorio, taken in 1889 in the new Esquilino quarter, which was created after the transfer of Italy’s capital to Rome.

     The unique monument was ordered by Massimiliano Palombara, the Marquis of Pietraforte, who lived between 1614 and 1680, a great expert in esoteric sciences and a frequenter of the coterie of Christine of Sweden, with whom he shared an interest in alchemy. 

     The epigraphs and mottos carved on it were done by Palombara himself, who thus left evidence of his membership in the esoteric movement of the Rosicrucians.  Indeed, the writings are a sort of exposition of alchemical formulas, complete with warnings to those who would undertake the difficult symbolic path of purification.  The gate thus becomes the emblematic representation of the passing over the “threshold” which must be crossed during the procedure of transmuting base metals into gold, corresponding philosophically to the attainment of the highest level of perfection of the human soul.

     The mysterious nature of it all is accentuated by the “monstrous dwarves” at the sides of the gate, which have recently been identified as two images of Bes, an ancient Egyptian demigod of apotropaic, oracular, and demonic significance, whose cult was widespread in the Roman world.

     The Bes statues were found in 1888 during the major defining work that took place on the Quirinal hill, where the residences of the most important Renaissance art and antiquity collectors, to whom they probably originally belonged, were situated.

     The present-day arrangement of the garden, completed in 1994, was conceived to suggest an interpretation of the site in its historic stratifications, as well as to repropose in spirit and design the 19^th-century intention as a meeting place for the quarter.  The repeated acts of vandalism and despoliation perpetrated on the gate down through the centuries also made necessary its restoration to recover the peculiar epigraphic nature of the monument, while taking into account the transformations and alterations suffered as compared to its original placement.  The two statues of Bes underwent a similar restoration operation.

Piazza Vittorio

     First, here are some photos of Piazzo Vittorio, where Porta Alchemica is located now.  I had to hop the fence to get the shots of the "Magic Gate" because a lock was placed on the gate and it was difficult to even see the Porta Alchemica from the outside.  It was quite an adventure!  There are many cats that live in this fenced-in area.  They welcomed my intrusion.

Porta Alchemica

Here is an image I found of the Egyptian deity Bes to compare with the statues at Porta Alchemica.

I was informed that Piazza Vittorio is surrounded by the "international" area of Italy.  Therefore I decided to explore.  However, I was intrigued to find this painting on a random wall while exploring.  It contains the same symbol I saw earlier at Porta Alchemica.

I had a lot of fun exploring this area of Italy.