Porte Saint-Antoine
Porte Saint-Antoine stands at the foot of Basilica Saint Michel, near Place Honoré II in Menton’s historic centre. One of four medieval gates, it once pierced the walls protecting a hillside town that developed around the middle of the thirteenth century.
The gate faces France, while Porte de Jean II led towards Castellar and Porte Saint-Julien faced Italy. Inside, narrow vaulted streets follow the slope through dark passageways towards Rue Longue, the old route that connected Menton with Italy. This road formed part of the Roman Via Aurelia, later called Via Julia Augusta, and remained the old town’s main thoroughfare from the medieval period into the sixteenth century.
Liguria supplied the stone paving, while shops, taverns and mule drivers’ inns lined the route. New roads and Bonaparte Quay shifted transport towards the sea during the nineteenth century, leaving the gate beside streets where the fortified town’s earlier shape still feels close.
- City
- Menton
- Content updated
Image: TangopasoPublic domain 
Image: Charles JACQUES from Cernay la villeCC BY-SA 2.0 
Image: MullanasrudinCC BY-SA 3.0 
Image: TangopasoPublic domain 
Image: TangopasoPublic domain
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Menton. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.