The city of Foligno (Fulginia and later Civitas Fulginei) is a city on the plains, thus a hub of roads and trade, but therefore exposed and vulnerable. In the verses of a poem by Silio Italico from A.D. II it is presented as a village without walls, as it also appears today. In reality, the town refers us to evidence of a walled center, with bridges and ramparts, for many centuries.
Studies and surveys held in the early nineteenth century brought to light remains of walls consisting of large blocks of squared travertine, which probably constituted the Roman city wall, of which, unfortunately, there is no study to date.
The first medieval wall, which in the sources referred to as muro veteris, must have been erected in the early 13th century (1217-1240).
The last wall, which corresponds to the walls that enclosed Foligno for six centuries, and of which evidence remains, was built between 1280 and 1291, and renovated between 1447 and 1456.
The gates opened on the wall: porta Badia (Ancona gate), porta Contrastanga (Roman gate), porta Santa Maria Infra Portas (Todi gate), porta San Giacomo (Florence gate), and porta della Croce, which corresponds to the present porta San Felicianetto, which survives only because it has been transformed into a shrine dedicated to the patron saint St. Feliciano. Medieval walls were incorporated into the extensions or torn down starting in the second half of the 18th century. Gates were destroyed or renovated, as in the case of Porta Romana, with the new structures built in 1868.
