The City Gate of Capua (Italian: Porta di Capua or Porta delle due Torri, 'Gate of the Two Towers') was a monumental fortified gate constructed between 1234 and 1239 at Capua, on the road between Naples and Rome, on the orders of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.[1][2]
While it survived, the gate was famous, and is often thought to have been influential on other constructions and sculptures of the period, especially in respect of the large statue of the seated emperor himself, which mostly survives in different museums.
The gate was destroyed in 1557 on the orders of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the viceroy of Naples.[1] Much of the sculpture is preserved today in the Museo Campano in Capua, but the sculpture of Frederick was severely damaged when French troops marched south to support the Parthenopean Republic in 1799.[1][3] The head is now in the Bode Museum in Berlin, and most of the body in the Museo Campano.
- ^ a b c D'Onofrio 2005.
- ^ Bredekamp 2021, p. 176.
- ^ Bredekamp 2021, p. 177.