The road connected the Castle's gate with the gate of the Apostolic palace; unlike the near Borgo Vecchio, it was not a processional path, but a direct link between "Castrum" and "Palatium", parallel to the "Passetto", the covered passage which allowed the Pope to escape to the castle in case of danger, and that would have been used few years later by pope Clement VII escaping in night robe after Frundsberg's Landsknechts.