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The gate stands on what was once the southern boundary of the “Leonine City”, that is, the area enclosed by the walls built by Pope Leo IV as a defence against the Saracens who had sacked Rome in 845 AD. The walls have a circumference of about 3 kilometres. The Santo Spirito gate was built by Antonio Sangallo the Younger in 1543 and later framed by ramparts in 1564 by order of Pope Pius IV Medici. The columns brusquely end in a modern concrete structure. Sangallo’s plan to create a monumental entranceway to the Vatican was never completed.