Sarno Gate opens in the eastern sector of Pompeii’s city walls, at the point where Via dell’Abbondanza, one of the city’s main streets, reached the fortifications and continued towards the Sarno valley. The gate’s position therefore made it an important link between the urban centre, the countryside to the east and the network of roads crossing the fertile surrounding plain.
The gate formed part of the complex defensive system that enclosed Pompeii for more than three kilometres. The fortifications were built and altered in several phases, with particularly significant work during the Samnite period. From the Roman period onwards, the walls’ strictly military role gradually declined, but the gates remained essential points of passage for people, carts and goods between the city and the surrounding territory.
The original appearance of Sarno Gate is now difficult to reconstruct because its structures survive only partially. Archaeological investigations nevertheless show that the gate underwent various changes over time and that the monumental arrangement of the entrance was more elaborate than the present remains suggest. Some scholars have proposed identifying this entrance as the ancient Porta Urbulana, a name recorded in reconstructions of Pompeii’s topography, but this identification should not be regarded as entirely certain.
The road passed through the gate between substantial masonry structures. Parts of the foundations, the opus incertum masonry and the structures associated with the covering of the entrance survive. Investigations have also identified elements of the drainage system designed to channel water flowing down Via dell’Abbondanza out of the city, demonstrating how closely gates, roads and water-management infrastructure were integrated.
During the Augustan period, the road level was altered and lowered, exposing parts of the earlier foundations. These works attest to the continuous adaptation of the eastern entrance to the city’s needs and make it possible to distinguish different phases in the construction of the gate and the surrounding walls.
Sarno Gate is one of the least well-preserved gates at Pompeii. The northern part of the entrance suffered extremely severe damage during the bombings of the Second World War, which destroyed a substantial portion of the structures still standing. More extensive remains of the masonry and the structures flanking the passage survive on the southern side.
A large necropolis developed outside the gate, extending along the suburban roads in keeping with the widespread Roman practice of placing burials outside the urban area. Archaeological investigations have shown that this funerary sector had a very long history, with evidence dating back to the Samnite age and continuing into the final decades of the city’s life.
The Necropolis of Sarno Gate has once again become a focus of archaeological research in recent years. Excavations have identified numerous burials and funerary monuments, including the tomb of Marcus Venerius Secundio, a freedman who attained a prominent position in Pompeian society. Among other things, the inscription on his tomb records the organisation of performances in Greek and Latin, providing particularly important evidence of the city’s cultural life.
More recent research has also led to the discovery of further funerary monuments in the area east of the gate. These include a monumental tomb of the Republican period decorated with life-size reliefs of a man and a woman, the latter possibly identifiable as a priestess of Ceres. These discoveries are allowing the development of the necropolis and the relationship between burial grounds, suburban roads and fortifications to be reconstructed with increasing precision.
The road leaving Sarno Gate formed the eastern continuation of Via dell’Abbondanza. Investigations outside the walls have uncovered stretches of paved roads deeply rutted by carts, confirming the intensive use of this entrance and its connection with the surrounding territory.
Sarno Gate and the city walls therefore form a particularly important sector for understanding Pompeii’s urban development. The ancient defensive system, the main thoroughfare crossing the city from west to east, the drainage infrastructure and the extensive suburban necropolis came together at this point, documenting the continuous relationship between the city of the living and the territory beyond its walls.
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