Historians claim that gates in the fortress wall stood on this site as far back as the Roman Empire. Back then, they served more as a defensive structure; however, many centuries later they began to be used as a customs inspection point.
After Milan was captured in the 18th century by the troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the city walls were demolished, but the gates remained almost unchanged. Years later, Napoleon influenced their fate. At his initiative, the architectural monument was destroyed to its foundations.
The renovated gates, built in 1828, were meant to symbolize all the grandeur and wealth of the "newly elected" capital of the Italian Republic. The project was carried out in the then-popular Neoclassical style by the famous architect Giuseppe Piermarini. These are exactly the two symmetrically positioned buildings that we now see before us. It is worth noting that in those days they were still called differently - Porta Orientale or Eastern Gate. The gates were only named Venetian in 1862, when Milan hoped for the imminent annexation of Venice and the formation of a unified Italian state.
