The Porta Maggiore, or Porta Malatestiana Maggiore, located in front of the Arch of Augustus, was one of the gates of Fano built at the time of the expansion of the city in 1227 and until the beginning of the twentieth century it represented the main entrance to Fano. During the siege of the papal troops led by Federico Montefeltro, the Porta Maggiore and its side towers were destroyed. The task of their reconstruction was entrusted to the architect Matteo Nuti who placed a defensive bastion alongside them, the Bastione del Nuti.
In 1227, following the expansion of the city towards the south-west, a new gate called "Maggiore" was built in front of the Porta d'Augusto which took on the role of the new fortified entrance to the city. During the rule of the Malatesta lordship, the gate underwent numerous renovation and strengthening interventions, interventions which were however not sufficient to protect it from the bombardments of the papal troops led by Federico Montefeltro in 1463. During this siege, the Porta Maggiore and its lateral towers they were destroyed. The task of their reconstruction was entrusted to the architect Matteo Nuti and was subsequently completed by his son Ludovico. The planned entrance was supposed to be an update of the defenses which until then consisted of the now obsolete Porta d'Augusto: a new entrance was therefore built, moved towards the west, with an opening for the driveway and one for the pedestrian one. On the sides two holes, still visible, allowed flanking shots. The gate originally had to be crowned with battlements, which were then covered by a wooden truss. Subsequently, next to the Gate, a further defensive nucleus was built, the Nuti Bastion, named after the architect himself: low, stocky, with sloping walls and with sufficient space to allow the movement of artillery pieces, the bastion was then cut in the fascist era to allow a monumental entrance to the city. In the western corner he built a polygonal tower, very similar to one of the towers in the city walls of Gradara, with enough space to move pieces of fire that could defend the part of the Roman walls to which it connected.
The entire Porta Maggiore area has undergone notable transformations, especially in the last century: the walls that linked the bastion to the Porta Maggiore were demolished to allow easier access to the city and therefore the view of the Porta Augustea, all the houses between the two doors, the street level was lowered and the facade of the church of San Michele was moved back. The space of the bastion inside the walls was used, in the period 1930-1940, as public gardens, "il Pincio" and the space is embellished with a statue of Cesare Ottaviano Augusto, a bronze copy of the statue found near Prima Porta , in Rome.
