Porta Nuova is one of the major wall gates of Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. The name is also used to refer to the surrounding district ("quartiere

Quartiere

A quartiere is a subdivision of certain Italian towns. The word is from quarto, or fourth, and was thus properly used only for towns divided into four neighborhoods. The English word "quarter" to mean a neighborhood A quartiere (plural: quartieri) is a subdivision of certain Italian towns. The...

").

The gate

The gate of Porta Nuova was built from 1810 to 1813 on the old road (of Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 origin) connecting Milan and Brianza

Brianza

thumb|250px|The [[Corni di Canzo]].Brianza is a geographical area at the foot of the Alps, in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy.-Geography:...

. Stylistically, it is a triumphal arch

Triumphal arch

A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...

 of ionic order

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

 influence. It is made of friable sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

, and as a consequence its decorations have degraded over time.

The district

After a long period of decay, the Porta Nuova district is now undergoing a massive renewal, referred to as the "Progetto Porta Nuova" (Porta Nuova Project). The project, which is still in progress, includes several modern buildings, skyscraper

Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...

s, cultural centres, and a large city park. As a consequence of these changes, the Porta Nuova district will ideally become one with the bordering Centro Direzionale di Milano

Centro Direzionale di Milano

The Centro Direzionale di Milano is a business district in Milan, Italy, part of the Zone 9 administrative division. It is located north-west of the city centre, between the major railway stations of Milano Centrale and Milano Porta Garibaldi...

("Milan Directional Centre"), an area of Milan that is characterized by modern, "high-tech" style buildings, many of which dedicated to government offices and other major public institutions.