Porta Pia was designed by Michelangelo in replacement for the Porta Nomentana situated several hundred meters southwards, which was closed up at the same time. Construction began in 1561 and ended in 1565, after the artist's death.
The facade on the outside of the city was completed in 1869 under the Neo-Classicist design by Virginio Vespignani. It houses two statues (of saints Agnes and Alexander, according to the will of Pius IX), each in their own niche, flanked by four columns. The Pope wanted a memorial to his escape from danger during the collapse of the audience chamber at the Sant'Agnese convent (near the gate) during his visit there on April 12, 1855. An inscription above the arch on the external side recorded this escape:
HIEROMARTYRIBVS MAGNIS ALEXANDRO PONT MAX AGNETI VIRG
QVORVM TROPAEIS VIA NOMENTANA NOBILITATVR
PIVS IX PONTIFEX MAXIMVS ANNO SACRI PRINC XXIII
PORTAM PIAM NOVIS OPERIBVS COMMVNITAM EXORNATAM DEDICAVIT
DECESSORI INVICTO SOSPITATRICI SVAE
IOSEPHO FERRARIO ANTISTITE VRBANO PRAEFECTO AERARI
It was through an artillery-opened breach in the wall a dozen metres to the west of the gate – known as the "Porta Pia breach" – that on September 20, 1870 Bersaglieri soldiers entered Rome and completed the unification of Italy. A marble and bronze monument is to be found at the exact point of the breach. Opposite the gate, on the external side, at the centre of the piazzale di Porta Pia, is the Monumento al Bersagliere by Publio Morbiducci erected in 1932 on a commission from Mussolini. The buildings between the two arches of the gate, once housing the customs office, are now the seat of the Historical Museum of the Bersaglieri, with the monumental tomb of Enrico Toti.
Here, on September 11, 1926, the antifascist activist Gino Lucetti threw a bomb against the car transporting Benito Mussolini, but without effect.
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