Via di Porta Angelica takes its name from the port built by Pope Pius IV in 1563 and that opened along the new stretch of wall that, along the Piazza Risorgimento-by-Porcari via Alberico II, was connected 1 Porta Angelica with the ramparts of Castel Sant'Angelo . Porta Angelica, so named by the first name of Pope Pius IV, or Giovanni Angelo Medici, was built as an alternative to the Porta del Popolo to the pilgrims who came from the north and were headed to the tomb of Peter, which is why the Pope did make also a long and straight, called Angelica Road (now corresponding via Ottaviano-Barletta-off Viale Angelico) and that, after having skirted the Tiber for about 1 km, it joined the Via Cassia height of the Milvian Bridge . The Gate was devoid of blackbirds (as you can see in the picture 1) and the flat top was used to expose the heads of those sentenced to death, enclosed in iron cages, severe and terrible warning to the citizens but also to the pilgrims who came to Rome: only in 1840, with Pope Gregory XVI, the practice was discontinued.