Dating back to the 13th century, Porta Saragozza remained a rather secondary and unused pass until 1674, when the long portico was built which leads from Via Saragozza to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. From that moment, the door acquired particular importance as the point of arrival and departure of the famous processions dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and relative point of reference for the faithful heading to the Sanctuary, to the point of being called "sacred door" and "pilgrims' door". . Today the door houses the Museum of the Blessed Virgin of San Luca.
Rebuilt in 1858 in a neo-Gothic style which was a source of heated controversy at the time, Porta Saragozza returned to being talked about on 28 June 1982. For the first time in Italy, the then mayor of Bologna Renato Zangheri decided to assign the spaces of the door, a public structure, to a homosexual cultural association: the 28 June Club. The association remained in those spaces until 2002, then becoming the historic Cassero association and moving to Salara, its current headquarters. A decision which, in a historical moment of high political tension, was already revolutionary in itself, made even stronger by the fact that the gate was a place of great religious importance. The event took on historical and social relevance at a national level and contributed to marking the image of Bologna as a progressive city open to differences.