The opening of the walls of the Rocca Abbaziale di Subiaco: the new carriage road, the entrance portal
and the Stables
The construction carried out by Pope Pius VI Braschi totally changed Subiaco’s urban planning: the
Rocca Abbaziale was no longer only accessible via alleys and steep stairways, but was now also connected to the town by means of a new carriage road, created to constitute a sumptuous triumphal path for the
Pope.
The new avenue, an extension of the Via Sublacense, cut a section through the triple city walls of
the Rocca, which had been closed until then as their defensive nature required, through a monumental
entrance portal with connected Stables, intended to accommodate the carriages of the papal court. The
“breach” opened in the walls also transformed the peculiar aesthetics of the building itself, which from
fortress became a noble palace. This opening is well documented in the two descriptive land registers,
the Barberiniano and the one created by Luigi Tranquilli, land registers that can be compared to the Gregorian.
