The Museum of Via Ostiense was founded in 1954 and is set up in the rooms annexed to Porta Ostiense or Porta San Paolo. The documentary material, consisting of plastic models, moulds, prints, and photographs is exhibited in some rooms of the towers and on the walkways within the Porta. They illustrate the history of Via Ostiense, the large and important commercial thoroughfare that since the most ancient times connected Rome with the coast, ensuring among other things the supply of salt. The large plastic models of Ostia Antica, the Ports of Claudius and Trajan and the small Market of Ostia (designed by the architect Gismondi) are set up in the two towers.