Porte d'Italie

The Porte d Italie marks the point where Paris physically opened its gates to the south. It takes its name from its historical role as the starting point of the Route Nationale 7, the legendary road that historically connected the French capital directly to Italy. While today it serves as a busy transit hub for the metro and tram, it was originally positioned between the eighty-seventh and eighty-eighth bastions of the Thiers wall. This nineteenth-century defensive fortification once encircled the city, and this gate acted as a critical checkpoint for travelers, merchants, and goods entering the heart of Paris from the southern provinces.