Rome's medieval churches lie some of the most beautiful Byzantine mosaics in Italy. The apses of the city's important churches, including Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Maria in Trastevere and San Clemente, are many decorates. The oldest mosaics date from the 4th century, when the Roman art of mosaic-making was evolving into early-Christian and Byzantine styles. In Santa Costanza retain some Roman characteristics: a white background, geometric composition and ornamental motifs.
In the Constantine's Reign many churches were built and ornamental mosaic became the main form of decoration.
Rome's early-Christian mosaics also illustrate the progression from the naturalism of Roman art to the symbolism of Christian art, often reflected in the various representations of Jesus Christ. A mosaic in a mausoleum under St Peter's Basilica shows Christ in the form of Apollo. In Chiesa di Santa Pudenziana (390 AD) he is enthroned between the apostles (who are dressed as Roman senators) and his magisterial air is reminiscent of Jupiter.
The mosaics of Rome's medieval churches are a fascinating and often overlooked treasure for those who cannot spare time to visit Ravenna or Monreale. The following suggested itinerary covers some of the lesser-known churches.
The mid-4th-century Mausoleo di Santa Costanza was built by Constantia, daughter of Constantine, as a mausoleum for herself and her sister Helen. This round church is in the same grounds as the Basilica di Sant'Agnese Fuori-le-Mura, Via Nomentana, a few kilometres north of the centre (catch bus No 62 from Piazza Venezia). As well as the fascinating paleo-Christian mosaics on the barrel-vaulting of the ambulatory, the 7th-century mosaic of St Agnes and Popes symmachus and Honorius I in the apse of the basilica are also worth a look.
According to tradition, Santa Prudenziana, one of the oldest churches in Rome, was founded on the site of a house where St Peter was given hospitality. The structure actually incorporated the internal thermal hall of the house. The mosaic in the apse dates from 390 AD and is the earliest of its kind in Rome but, unfortunately, was partially destroyed by a 16th century restoration. The church is in Via Urbana.

Santi Cosma e Damiano, Via del Fori Imperiali, harbours magnificent 6th-century mosaics on the triumphal arch (Christ as the Lamb enthroned, surrounded by candlesticks and angels, as well as the symbols of the evangelists) and mosaics in the apse feature Cosma and Damian being presented to Christ by Peter and Paul and, underneath, Christ as the Lamb, with the 12 apostles also represented as lambs. Bethlehem and Jerusalem are portrayed on either side.

The 9th-century Chiesa di Santa Prassede, Via Santa Prassede, was founded in honour of St Praxedes, by Pope Paschal I, who transferred the bones of 2000 martyrs there from the catacombs. The rich mosaics of the apse date from the 9th century and feature Christ in the centre of the semi-dome, surrounded by St Peter, St Pudentiana and St Zeno (to the right) and St Paul, St Praxedes and St Paschal (to the left). Below is Christ as the Lamb and his flock.

The Cappella di San Zenone, inside the church, is the most important Byzantine monument in Rome, built by Paschal I as a mausoleum for his mother. Known as the Garden of Paradise, the chapel has a vaulted interior covered in mosaics, including Madonna with Saints, Christ with Saints and, in the vault, Christ with Angels. The chapel pavement is an early example of opus sectile (polychrome marble), and in a small niche on the right are fragments of a column brought from Jerusalem in 1223. It's said to be the one at which Christ was scourged.

Across the Tiber is the Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Piazza del Mercanti, built in the 9th century by Paschal I over the house of St Cecilia, where she was martyred in 230 AD. The impressive mosaic in the apse was executed in 870 AD and features Christ giving a blessing. To his right are St Peter, St Valerian (St Cecilia's husband) and St Cecilia herself. To his left are St Paul, St Agatha and St Paschal. The holy cities are depicted underneath.

Rome's fresh-produce markets are treasured reminders of a more traditional way of life. There's generally a dazzling array of fresh fruit and vegetables, often meat and fish stalls, the usual delicatessen fare and sometimes stalls selling clothing, shoes or bric-a-brac.
The lively daily market in Campo de' Fiori is certainly the most picturesque, but also the most expensive. Prices seem to rise if the shopper has a foreign accent.
Trastevere locals shop at the excellent Piazza San Cosimato market, a traditional neighbourhood market adjacent to one of the best food-shopping streets in Rome, Via Natale del Grande.
The covered Piazza dell' Unità market, near the Vatican, is another good place to shop. The Ponte Milvio market, north of the city centre, caters for well-heeled shoppers.
The huge market at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele is Rome's biggest and goes all the way around the square. It is one of the cheapest markets in the city and the place to find exotic ingredients alongside the usual fare, as it is in the most multi-ethnic area of Rome. It is colourful but not the most salubrious of places - watch your handbag. Great bargains can be found on Saturday afternoon when the market is closing.
The Testaccio market on Piazza Testaccio, is the most Roman of all the city's markets. It is noted for its excellent quality and good prices.

In the Roman fashion world two names stand out - Valentino Garavani and Laura Biagiotti. When Valentino set up his alta moda in 1959, his clientele included Jackie Kennedy, Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn. While his couture collections featuring superb evening gowns have always been inaccessible to all but the most wealthy of customers, his ready-to-wear lines for both men and women, introduced in the 1970s, have become staples of the fashionable set.
The eternally elegant Laura Biagiotti is Rome's queen of fashion. Luxurious knitwear, sumptuous silk separates and lots of white and cream are her trademarks. Biagiotti is a generous philanthropist and has funded many restoration works in Rome. She has even named a perfume after the city.

While animal rights is not a major consideration for the average Roman, the welfare of the city's huge stray cat population is a fascinating exception. Most of the city's feline residents are semi-wild, although it can be hard to pick the strays from the pets just out for a stroll.

The strays are often as well fed and contented, thanks to the army of women who feed them left over pasta. There are an estimated 10,000 cat colonies in Rome, many located in archaeological areas, such as the Colosseum, Foro di Traiano and in Largo di Torre Argentina. Some 500 of these colonies are under veterinary supervision, either by private animal welfare groups or by the city's own services.

Since the introduction of an extraordinarily humane law in 1988, Rome's stray cats are guaranteed the right to live where they’re born - meaning that locals can't chase them away, whatever problems they cause. This right is also included in the model for national legislation.

Whether you're after papal party gear, nun's knickers, incense burners or a life-size painted wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, the streets around Via dei Cestari and Via di Santa Chiara (near the Pantheon) are where you'll find it.

Anniable Gamarelli is the pope's official tailor and is responsible for providing the new pope with a set of clothes long before anyone knows who it will be. So they make three different sizes - tall and thin, short and fat, and average - and hope that one fits.

Every Year there open-air summer cinema festival on Tiberina Island features a fascinating programme of previews, retrospectives and blockbuster movies.
The festival takes place in a magnificent location on the Tevere river. The Ponte Rotto (broken bridge) connects the island to the mainland and is illuminated to transform this magical place into a huge cinema set.

Music, dance, fashion shows, multimedia artists, food and wine tastings accompany themed evenings and there are also appearances by stars from the movie world.

 

The oldest documents in the Vatican Secret Archive are evidences of donations, lists of Churches and of Charity actions.
From the IV century on, after the Church of Rome was officially recognised, the collection could be regarded as a real archive. The erection of Saint Peter's Cathedral (or Basilica), was started in this period of theological and artistic excitement . Since the Middle Age, the archive kept growing and remained in the Lateran Palace until the XIII century.
During the of papacy of Gregory the Great, the archive was kept partly inside Saint Peter's Cathedral, next to Saint Peter's tomb, partly in the Chartularia Tower, near Titus' Arch, and partly in the vestiary of the Church of Rome (Vestiarium Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae) at the Lateran Palace.Unfortuntely, due to the vulnerability of the material and to the adventurous and frequent displacement as well as to wars and sacks (among them the Sack of Rome in 1084), a large part of the archive was lost.
Under Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), at the time of Saint Francis and Saint Dominic de Guzman, the fervour in economy, culture, politics and religion produced a big number of documents that were to be preserved in the Vatican Archive.
The Archive was then transferred to Vatican City and the registers became more regular. Unfortunately, in the following years they followed the various Popes to many different places: to Lyon, to Viterbo, with Pope Boniface VIII to Anagni, with Pope Benedict XI to Perugia. The Vatican Archive remained there for some years and then part of it was sent to Assisi, part to Avignon. The Archive was badly damaged as a consequence of the many conflicts, documented by many precious evidences preserved in the Archive itself.
With Popes Urban VI, Boniface IX, Innocent VII and Gregory XII a new nucleus of the Archive was developed in Rome.

The books and documents of the Vatican Archive were then dispersed in the various pontifical offices. Pope Martin V (1417 - 1431) started to re-collect the material. Sixtus IV (1471-1484) founded the Vatican Library , which contained a bibliotheca secreta that was to become a part of the Archive. Some documents were taken to Castel Sant'Angelo and thus they were miraculously saved during the Sack of Rome in 1527.
Pope Pius IV felt that the Holy See needed a Secret Archive of its own (the term 'secret' means 'private', which means it was not open to the public) and founded a central Vatican Archive in the Apostolic Palace, in Vatican City.
This was a grand project and was continued by his successors (Pius V, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, Clement VIII. During the latter's papacy the Vatican Archive of Castel Sant'Angelo (Archivum Arcis Sancti Angeli )was finally established.

Paul V gave order that all the writings belonging to the Holy See and the Apostolic Chamber should be delivered to the Guards of the Vatican Library or to the Archive at Castel Sant'Angelo.
The fisrt nuclues of the Vatican Secret Archive was then set up in three halls, adjacent to the Vatican Library and decorated with frescoes by many artists, between 1612 and 1614.
In 1615 the first inventory of the Archive of the Vatican Library was made, and the Vatican Archive gradually became independent from the Apostolic Library. In 1630 more halls were given to the Archive to preserve the diplomatic correspondence of the Holy See. In 1783 the papal archive that had been left in Avignon was taken back to Rome.
In 1810 Napoleon I wanted to transfer the Archive and many works of art to Paris. They returned to Vatican City between 1815 and 1817, but with significant damage and losses.
Under Pius IX (1846-1878) the Italian Government confiscated part of the Archive.

Pope Leo XIII (1878 - 1903) decided to open the Vatican Archive to scholars and historians for their researches.
The liberalisation of the access to the Archive qualified the Holy See for its important service to culture and research. Many cultural organisations were founded after Leo XIII farsighted decision. Among them the French School, The Germanic Historical Insitute, The Belgian Academy, The Austrian Institute for Culture, etc.
In 1884 Leo XIII founded the School of Palaeography and Diplomacy to promote studies and researches on the History of the Church.
After World War I the international relationships of the Holy See with the religious non-Christian world increased, and the production of documents increased. The Vatican Archive acquired the hall in the Torre dei Venti (Tower of the Wind), frescoed in 1580-1582 by Niccolò Circignani (alsa known as Pomarancio) and by the Flemish artists Matthew and Paul Bril.
After World War II the Archive was given the rooms above the Gallery of Geographic maps at the Vatican Museums.
The most important improvement was the erection of a dedicated building that was inaugurated by Pope John Paul II on October 18, 1980.
The Vatican Secret Archive is an infinite source of information for the scholars. The access to the Archive is governed by pontifical rules and today it includes all periods until the age of Pope Benedict V (1914-22). The latest documents are still "secret".

 

Rome is rich with all kinds of subterranean settings. And so are Italy, Europe and all other areas that have been inhabited by man. The underground has always been an integral part of every culture, both homegrown and foreign. And Rome, considered the cradle of culture and for centuries the capital of the Roman Empire, became more and more enriched with a secret, underground heritage.
Rome preserves precious pages of history under its ground as: wells, aqueducts, sewerages, catacombs, and prisons. Ancient Rome combined with the unusual and mysterious intrigue of hypogeum environments.


 


 





 

The Virgin Aqueduct


The Aqueduct of the Virgin waters was desired by Agrippa, the emperor’s son-in-law, who inaugurated it on 9th June 19 BC to supply his thermae in Campo Marzio.
It was the sixth roman aqueduct to be built and originated a short distance from the course of the river Aniene from sources found in the Agro Lucullano, situated on the VIII mile of the via Collatina (corresponding to the present day km. 10,500), near the present day Salone, 24 metres above sea-level. The name as Legend says derie that a young girl told Agrippa’s soldiers where the sources were, because until then they had not been found and so from that moment they were called “of the Virgin”.
The Virgin Aqueduct is still in function and accessible in its underground part for inspections and checks. The cavern is well known and even navigable by boat. Its average width is 1,50 metres and where the ground is inconsistent, the cavern is constructed with brickwork in cement and a facing with a wire netting. When it crosses consistent banks of tufa, it is directly dug in the tunnel. In the area of the suburban hills it reaches a depth of 30-40 metres, with a maximum depth of 43 metres in Parioli (viale Romania). Also well known is the installation for receiving the water from the sources, still in function and thoroughly inspected during maintenance and restoration.
The water was collected not only in the underground passages but also in an artificial river basin closed downstream by a concrete dam, which still existed in the last century (today it has been buried), which was used to regulate the inlet of water in the main channel and to regulate the stratum. A small had been built near the river basin with paintings of the nymph of the river’s sources which gave origin to the legend, recalled by Frontino, which tried to explain the name given to the aqueduct; instead it was linked to the fact that the water was pure and fresh.   . As the bends in the Aqueduct were interrupted at the level of Via del Corso, Adrian’s restoration probably consisted in the preparation of the new terminal fountain downstream not more than 200 metres, in a beeline, from the interruption.

Today unfortunately the Virgin Aqueduct is being progressively “intubed” and is being alternatively substituted with cement structures, which destroy the ancient ones. Moreover, the water, once so famous, has been profoundly polluted by the uncontrolled urbanisation, which overlaid the ancient canal and the water stratum.
So the Aqua Virgo (or Trevi water as it was named after the construction of the Trevi Fountain), which until ten years ago was still sought after as drinking water in alternative to the more common calcareous water (like Marcia), which is now only used for irrigation and to supply some of the most beautiful Roman fountains: Barcaccia at the Spanish steps, the Trevi Fountain and the Fiumi in piazza Navona.
 

Mecenate auditorium

The discovery of the Auditorium of Mecenate happened by chance when work was being done to open the new Via Merulana and the nearby Largo Leopardi (in an area previously occupied by the Villa Caetani). The apsed room that was brought to light formed part of a larger complex set astride the Severian Walls. This complex was immediately demolished.
Horace and his annotators said that the unhealthy cemetery of the poor on the Esquiline Hill was covered to allow the construction of this villa. Part of the "Agger" of the "Mura Serviane" was also leveled. Blocks of tufa from Grotta Oscura were inserted in the facade that faces Via Leopardi.
 The gardens of Mecenate were the earliest realised on the Esquiline Hill, at the expense of the city's ancient necropolis. They were most likely an expansion of an old property owned by Augustus' powerful "minister." . The inscription on the Esquiline Gate, dedicated to the emperor, possibly indicates that the gate was an entranceway to the gardens that contained the large ten-sided building known as the "Temple of Minerva Medica". The urbanisation of the Esquiline Hill at the end of the last century brought to light the enormous quantity of art belonging to these villas. Most of the works are on display in the Museo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill.

    

 

The basilica of St. Clemente


The archaeological complex of San Clemente rises out of the valley between Colle Oppio and the Celio; it's is under of the modern Via San Giovanni in Laterano, which runs beside the church, is more or less based on a Roman road. What is certain is that, near the church -- but 5.20 metres deep -- there are many-sided flint blocks characteristic of a roadbed.
The primitive basilica of San Clemente (now underground) was built in the second half of the 4th century within a Roman "domus" of the 3rd century. The house itself was built within the boundaries of a preceding construction surrounded by strong walls made of tufa blocks with a travertine marble border. This latter is separated by a narrow (just 80 centimetres) alley from an "insula", in which a mithraeum was built in the 3rd century.
The lower basilica is much wider than the upper one. It was discovered in 1865 by Fr. Mullooly. Like the upper basilica it has a nave and two side aisles separated by columns with a single semi-circular apse at the west end of the nave and, naturally, a facade preceded by an atrium at the opposite end. The left aisle of the lower church corresponds to the upper one; but the central nave of the lower church is so wide that it corresponds to both the nave and the right aisle of the upper church. The lower right aisle extends beyond the limits of the upper church, and lies below the chapels and the sacristy with the secondary rooms included. The pavement of the upper church corresponds exactly to the level of the capitols of the lower one.


The lower church houses a series of frescos that are considered exceptional -- for their artistic quality rather than that of their preservation.
The date of these frescos goes back to the origins of the church itself -- 12th century -- at which point the remains of the ruined church were filled in to allow the construction of the upper church. There are masterpieces of pure Byzantine style such as the 8th century Madonna and Child, and frescos of the 9th century (Final Judgment or Funeral); but above all there are works from between 1084 (Guiscard's sack of Rome) and the abandoning of the structure, which are attributed to the Roman school and have specific personalities. Among the latter, there are three very important frescos -- two of the Legends of St. Clement and one of the Legend of St. Alessio (which we'll deal with in detail later). There are other minor ones such as Daniel in the lions' den, St. Blaise healing a child, in the narthex, the Translation of the relics of the Saint (Clement for some, Cyril for others) from St. Peter's to St. Clement's.
An inscription gives us the name of the donor of the last: "Maria macellaria" -- she dealt with the sale of meat -- "for fear of God and for the redemption of her soul".
In these frescos we find, on one hand, the desire to break with the static nature of Byzantine art and, on the other, a particular influence of classic models -- the architecture in the backgrounds and the palm groves recall ancient models.
The "Miracle of St. Clement" is in the narthex. The Saint was buried in an underwater chapel in the Black Sea where he'd died, but once a year the water receded to allow the faithful to reach the martyr's tomb. However, it was necessary to be careful of the rapid "reclosing" of the sea. One year a woman forgot her son there. She implored the Saint to save him, and the following year the child was found safe and healthy in the chapel. St. Clement's miracle!
We see the mother, still dishevelled, find her child and then lift him up, while the water surrounds the small chapel. The event is focused by the drapes of the ciborium -- knotted in a subtle plastic way -- and framed by schematic fish which (with the colours green and yellow on white) symbolise the sea. On the right is a Eucharist basket, "verticalized" by a yellow stand like those in the catacombs.
 

The Basilica of S.S. John and Paul

The western part of the Ninphaeum.
The Basilica of Saints John and Paul is situated on an open square, and it partially covers a series of buildings of the imperial age. The basilica can be found along the northern side of Clivus Scauri, an ancient northbound street that begins at the square and continues along the side of the temple of Claudius. Another street, parallel to Clivus Scauri, runs adjacent to two houses whose remains are partly under the basilica.
The houses, which were discovered at the end of the last century, are found on the south-west side of the basilica. Although only a few remains of one of the houses can be seen at the end of the basilica’s right aisle, the other structure’s massive wall of Opus Mixtum (II c. A.D.) (B) has been remarkably well preserved (covered only by the medieval arches which cross this point of the street). On the left side of Clivus Scauri, one can see that the structure’s facade (II c. A.D.) (C) has been cut at the second floor and the windows and the six arches on the ground floor have been covered. The basilica’s nave and left aisle have been built on this structure.
The two structures were originally separated by a narrow alley (2) that was later transformed into a rich nymphaeum. From the nymphaeum, one can enter the rooms of the ground floor. Initially rooms five, seven, and nine were taverns. From rooms four, six, and eight, one can enter both the taverns and the yard. In room four, one can view a remarkable decoration—against a white background, Ephebes carries a garland and is surrounded by peacocks and other birds. In rooms eight and nine, one finds a more recent decoration (first half of the IV c. A.D.). It is a painted imitation of rich coloured marble encrustations. In room eight, a vault begins at the heavy acanthus frieze directly above the faux marble.
Except for the central part of the vault, which has been lost, the decoration is especially well kept here. The vault is painted with a circular decoration that is divided into twelve parts. Within each part male characters, pairs of sheep, and other ornamental elements are represented. In the lunette, an early Christian fresco can be found. It is the image of a praying man who is depicted, as is usual for this period, with open arms.
Other early Christian art can be found in the small confessional half way down the staircase of the courtyard (3). It is a decorated niche with frescoes of the second half of the IV c. A.D., in which a story of Christian martyrs is depicted. The frescoes covered three sides of the niche in which one finds the fenestrella confessionis. The most compelling scenes are found on the right: three marching figures, two men and a woman, are escorted by two soldiers. Below, in another fresco, their beheading is represented. In the natural tuff of the area under the stairs, below the niche, one finds three hollow spaces that have been thought to be tombs.

Room of the Geniuses. Southern wall.

It is easy to connect these representations with the tale of Saints John’s and Paul's passion. Even if the two saints might have been added later, there is a striking coincidence with the tale of Crispus, Crispinianus and Benedetta's martyrdom, whose bodies had been buried in a house belonging to the Christian Bizante since the III c. Bizante may have given the house to the church, transforming it in a titulus.
One might argue that the existence of a Christian subject in the early fourth century frescoes in room eight, the likely use of the first floor of the house as a meeting place whose shape and dimensions are not dissimilar from those of the basilica, and the frescoes from the latter half of the fourth century in which the martyrdom of two men and a woman is narrated, strongly confirm the tradition.
The construction of the basilica, which included the titulus and adjoining secular buildings, might have been started around 410 AD. The nave (44.30 m long, and 14.68 m wide) and the aisles (7.40 m wide) were divided by thirteen arches supported by twelve pillars. The foundation of the series of columns rested on the pre-existing buildings, so that only a part of the ground floor of the titulus was accessible. A semicircular apse, with four wide windows, was added to the nave. A small museum holds the artifacts that were recovered during the excavation.


The picture kindly are granted from the review Forma Urbis

Basilica of St. Mark

It walls peripheral, with visible the ancient Clivus .
The present St. Mark’s Basilica is the last of a series of basilicas built on the same site, each one being built on the remains of the former basilica. The first basilica was that of Pope Mark who constructed it during is brief papacy of six months during the year 336. As soon as you descend the stairs leading underground, through a small door on the left of the door of the present day entrance, today you can observe the external walls of the original Paleochristian Basilica perfectly conserved and only recently bought to light. Particular emphasis is given to the remarkable disposition of the nave, practically opposite the present day one.

This was probably because the Basilica had to be protected from the frequent flooding of the Tiber, which especially in that period devastated the area even as far as the Via Lata (present day Via del Corso). To note also that the external walls of the apse rest on a paving of ancient basolato, perpendicular to the Via Lata and that already at the time of the construction of the first Basilica would have been a street of secondary importance. Several hypotheses have been advanced regarding this fact, the one of which seems to be the most probable is that it was a Clivus (hillock) unknown until the present, and that had already been completely abandoned in the V or at the most the VI century. Returning to examine the walls of the Paleochristian Basilica, it can be noted that the Basilica was constructed on one nave, absorbing, at least in part, the ancient constructions already present (probably a pre-existent domus).
During recent excavations tombs (in the photo) came to light, dating from around 500, and they are of particular importance as they are the proof that at that time, the Roman law which compelled people to bury their dead outside of the Pomoerium, that is the external walls, was no longer enforced. Leaving this area, we proceed along a narrow corridor to what was the ancient interior of the nave. Here you can admire the marvellous flooring in opus sectile, in multi-coloured marble and delimited by two parallel walls (the external walls of the Basilica) made of bricks, which lead to a solea o scola cantorum (choir school).


 

The catacomb of S. Sebastian

A particularly evocative atmosphere of the level number two.
The catacombs of S. Sebastian are situated in the Appian way and are of considerable importance because it is assumed that they housed temporarily the mortal remains of the two martyrs Peter and Paul.

The complex is also mentioned under the name of memoria apostolorum to recall the probable presence of the burial of these two martyrs in this cemetery.
In ancient times the area was known as ad catacumbas, that in Latin means “near to a depression in the ground” and this gives us useful indications about the topographical nature of the land, which from the start was extremely steep.
The inclination of the land was already exploited in Roman times as a burial ground, evident traces of pagan burials have been found which would seem to go back to Trojan times and which can be dated with certainty thanks to inscriptions found on the site.
Originally the area must have been a pozzolana quarry and then, as often happened in ancient times, readapted and used as a cemetery for the burial of, above all, slaves and freedmen, in fact most of the graves are modest and are burial niches or dovecotes. But there is no lack of monumental graves, which are situated in the area called “la piazzola”(the little square), a relatively extended space, today underground but originally probably in the open air.

This feature is not visitabile to the aim of preservare the numerous decorations.
The three elegantly decorated mausoleums in this square probably belonged to the richer freemen. Towards the first half of the third century the topography of the locality was literally overturned, the square is completely covered with earth creating a new large level space at a higher level than the former one.
Characteristic of this phase is the creation of a triclia, a covered space to which access was by way of small stairs, formed by a large room with a porch with a long bench with a backboard against the bottom wall. In this new square besides the triclia there is a small but extremely interesting monument with an apse and a small temple and a niche inside.
Most scholars are of the opinion, although without any reliable archaeological proof, that exactly in this period this complex temporarily housed the mortal remains of the two most important roman martyrs and that the mortal remains were kept inside this small monument. Besides ancient sources which recall the veneration of these martyrs in this place, called memoria apostolorum, many graffito of pilgrims have been found on the bottom wall of the triclia, invoking help and prayers addressed to both Peter and Paul; this would prove that in this zone there was a special veneration of the two saints.
The mortal remains of the two saints are said to have been taken to this place around 256 to avoid their loss during the persecutions of the emperor Valeriano; they were then brought back to the Vatican and to Ostiense in a safer moment.
But doubts still remain about this fact, the veneration of the two saints in this area is undoubtedly present and is very strong but the material presence of the remains of the martyrs is not certain and so the question amongst scholars still remains. Another particular is that at this phase of life no burials took place so it should have been an area dedicated exclusively to the commemoration of the martyrs. Lastly in the fourth century this area underwent another covering up with earth and so the flooring was again raised to receive the new Paleochristian basilica during Constantine’s reign.

 

 

The Cloaca Maxima

 An inspection in the monumental part of the Cloaca.
Since Rome’s foundation, the spring and rain waters, originated from the hills and the natural springs on the Tiber’s left bank, were canalised by means of small spontaneous rivers that then conveyed towards the river.
The existence of these rivers, however, caused many impediments to the city’s development, such as turning into a marsh the bottom of the valleys they crossed.

The first cloaca was built around 616 B.C. with the purpose of reclaiming the huge bogs that occupied the large valleys at the foot of the hills and it had Gabina stone banks and it was in the open air. Tarquin the Proud, with the same purpose of reclaiming the Forum area, decided to build the Cloaca Maxima: the greatest of these works and the only that has functioned incessantly from the time of its building until today.

Infact, it permitted the reclamation of the areas around the Forum, the Circo Massimo and the Suburra, collecting also the exhaust man folds that came from Velabro. Rodolfo Lanciani in “Ruins and excavations of Ancient Rome”, explains that the canal’s twisted course was built following the exact route of the rivers and, being consolidated during further widening and restorations, it remained even when the city’s growth imposed the covering of the canal. Infact, for a long time the Cloaca Maxima was left in the open air.
As proof of this there are, under the vault, many holes that used to keep the wooden loops of the numerous bridges that crossed it. After the building and the intense use of the Forum area, the covering of the duct became necessary, so it assumed the typical characteristics of a sewer; at the Tiber’s mouth, the sewer has an arched lintel in peperino blocks.
The first part of the Cloaca Maxima has, instead, walls in gabina stone blocks; along the route there are some openings from which minor sewers, with a cappuccina covering, penetrate.

 In this part, a pavement dating from ‘800 facilitates the inspection.
The duct’s section on the bank is m.2, 70 high and m.2,12 wide, it then progressively increases until it reaches, at the end of the route, a height of m.3,30 and a width of m.4,50 .
The final part was straightened to build a wall that flanked the riverside. The drains were usually situated a few metres from each other, with nice marble bas-reliefs, of which the most famous is definitely the one in the atrium of S.Maria in Cosmedin, better known as “the mouth of truth”.
It is possible to individuate the point were the Cloaca Maxima crosses the Forum thanks to the sacellum of Venere(Venus) Cloacina, who’s circular white marble base is still visible near the steps of the Emilia basilica. Built near the Cloaca, it was a circular enclosure, inside of which were the goddess’s statues, where two events of the mythical history of the city’s origins took place: the first was the purification of the fighters after the war caused by the Rape of the Sabine women, and the second was the murder of Virginia by her father, to save her virtue, after she became the decemvir Appio Claudio’s butt.
Today the Cloaca can be nearly entirely travelled along and even though it’s similar to a real sewer, the continuous presence of clear waters from the river Nodinus makes it relatively healthy to visit. The periodical floods that occurr during the consistent storms, reach over the vault of rain water and periodically clean the duct from impurities and deposits, as the roman project foresaw. The cloaca was studied in the past by Dr. .Bauer, who made a plotting of the main duct, and before, in 1889, by Ing. Narducci, who, with meticulous far-sightedness, studied the ancient cloacae, which were still in function.

 One of the secondary ducts, object of our recent studies.
The 'chiavicone Schiavonia'
The 'chiavica della Giuditta'
The 'chiavica dell’Olmo'
The 'acqua Mariana'
The 'cloaca Circi'
The 'cloaca di Ripa Mormorata'
The 'fognone di Borgo'
The 'Naumachia Augusti'

Today Roma sotterranea is working, together with the Borough of Rome, on a project studying the secondary adductions of the complex hypogeum. At the end of the project, it will be possible to reconstruct the extension and the development of the ancient water collecting net, the external adductions and understand the chronology of the different building fazes.





The Hypogeum of Antoniniano lane

The Rilief that it has been stolen .
The hypogeum is situated underneath a building overlooking Antoniniano Lane; this lane runs along the ancient Via Nova Antoniniana, which lead, avoiding the urban stretch of the Appia, to the entrance of the Antoniniane Thermae, began in 206 by Settimio Severo. Access to the hypogeum is by way of a trap door inside the house.

The hypogeum is almost certainly a pagan tomb dating from the II-III century. Traces of paintings and plaster, which decorated the vaults of the pavilions and the walls, are evident. The eastern wall, overlooking the road, is certainly the more interesting. The human figures in relief on a red and blue background are easily seen.
The central figure seems to be a cart pulled by horses. The plaster figures in relief have been erased, but they are still well intuitable.

A moment of our exploration .
A drilling effected in an unknown period, shows that the tomb’s wall is approximately 60cm.thick. Beyond this wall, we find another one that has leaned, later, on the external wall of the room. On this wall, a breach 80 cm.deep has been opened and in case it’s not only a containing wall, there could be an adjoining tomb hidden behind it.
On the north wall, interrupted by two wolves mouths, you can see on the left-hand side the figures of two birds. On the West side, south corner, was the tomb’s entrance, today completely obstructed by rubble. On the side a plastered niche, apparently not painted. On the top of this niche there is another air outlet, presumably of a later period, horizontally closed with some marble slabs.
On one of them there are engraved, clearly visible, two sea animals (presumably dolphins or whales). Everywhere there are fragments of vases and amphoras in addition to a portion of a sarcophagus, on which are visible some togate figures.


 


 

The Excubitorium of the 7th Cohort of the guards

One phase of the diggings of the Excubitorium. Nineteenth-century press.
The monument is marked by an inscription containing short notices which is in the wall to the left of the entrance over which is the coat of arms of Pope Pius IX. However, the architectural prospect is not that of the 19th century. At present it is at a right angle to the street, but was "moved" by 90 degrees during the digging for the opening of Viale Trastevere.
Situated about eight metres below the modern street level, the building was discovered in 1865-66 during the excavations financed by two collectors of works of art: G.Gagliardi and A.Ciocci. The public still remembered the enthusiasm over the discovery in 1849 (in Vicolo delle Palme, today Vicolo dell'Atleta) of numerous, valuable statues. These included a copy of the Athlete ("Apoxyomenos") by Lisippos later displayed in the Vatican Museums a horse and a bull in bronze now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill.
If the above circumstances were the principal motive for the research, the point of reference was an ancient wall which emerged in the garden of a private home on Piazza Monte di Fiore opposite the square of the church of St. Crisogonos. Both squares were eliminated the recent urbanistic arrangement of the neighbourhood.
From the very beginning of the excavation (completed later by the Government) the original use of the structure was made clear by the various "graffiti" on the walls. These included repeated references to the 7th cohort of the guards, which (according to the Augustan reform) was placed at the head of the surveillance of the IX and XIV regions. In particular, the building is identified as an "excubitorium" a detached body of guards of the 7th cohort on duty in Trastevere, their main camp being in Campo Marzio. If the monument's good state of preservation and the extraordinary documentary value of the graffiti attracted interest and prompted immediate study by specialists, the opposite happened to the area excavated. The conservation of the walls, and above all their decorations, was seriously compromised. The wall paintings were progressively ruined, while the magnificent mosaic paving was lost during the last war. Only in 1966, a hundred years after the discovery, was a suitable arrangement provided, when the monument was covered. Ordinary maintenance work was continued until 1986, at which time the architectural decoration and the rest of the paintings were restored.

The ancient door of access to the barracks.
Various clue discovered during the excavation reveal that the "excubitorium" was arranged ( towards the end of the 2nd century A.D. ) within a private home. It was either bought or rented by the city administration to house this minor barracks for the guards who were responsible for extinguishing as well as preventing fires. They were also responsible for public safety, particularly at night.
The considerable difference in levels between the street and the monument is overcome by a modern staircase. You enter a large hall, where your attention is immediately drawn to the centre of a large, hexagonal basin with concave sides. In front of this, on the southern wall, there is an elegant arched doorway. This was originally framed by two pilasters, with Corinthian bases and capitals, and surmounted by a tympanum. The doorway leads to a "lararium" a sort of chapel to the titular divinity of the guards, recorded in the graffiti, which were lost along with a large portion of the painted wall plastering in which they were scratched. In fact the only painted area that remains is at the top of the short wall containing the niche. Here panels lined in red present an architectural design composed of columns supporting an architrave. This, together with garlands, frames faint figures on a white background. These appear again, in a purely marginal position, in the geometric subdivision of the subarch, where the borders are again in red. Of the decorations of the door leading to the "lararium" ( all in brick ), the only part which remains is the tympanum decorated with cornices of different projection, and further distinguished by bricks of a different colour.
As was said above, the paving of the hall has been lost. It was composed of a large mosaic in black and white. It was documented in both drawings and photographs, in which are visible on the northern side: "two tritons, one of which holds in his right hand a large trident and in his left an extinguished torch, symbolising fire overcome; the other has a lit torch and is pointing at the sea, the water necessary to put out a fire". In other descriptions there is also mention of fantastic sea monsters, a horse, a goat and a serpent that completed the mosaic decorations on the other sides. Similarly, we know that the other rooms held "remains of frescos depicting pavilions, porticoes and shrines ( in the 4th Pompeian style ), or sea creatures, sprites, birds and foliage".
Of such valuable testimony fully consonant with the decorative index of the 3rd century A.D. nothing remains but pathetic bits (moreover, indecipherable) in the areas north of the atrium. The one exception is the fresco (with a linear, geometric pattern which encloses a hero and sea horses) found on the subarch of the door which almost in line with the aedicola opens onto a passageway leading to three rooms. It is thought that the room to the west, with the pavement of crushed terracotta (interrupted in the centre by a covered drain) was a bathroom. The original use of the other two connected (and communicating) rooms is uncertain. In fact, the most important, though totally insufficient, clue An interior of the excubitorium" is supplied by the paving in "opus spicatum", meaning, made with bricks laid in a "herring-bone" pattern. Usually employed in open-air service areas because of its resistance to wear and to water, here it is laid over a previous floor in mosaic small white tiles, visible 25 centimetres lower down.
This "herring-bone" pattern continues both in the corridor and in the following, narrower passage-way. The latter is reached through a hole made in the "fill" in part of the foundation of the overhead building. Northwards, this narrow passage-way is circumscribed by a marble threshold, perfectly aligned with the perimetric wall of a room. This room also with "herring-bone" pavement was clearly used as a storeroom (imbedded in the floor is an earthenware jar of the type used to hold grain, beans, oil, wine, etc. Both the threshold of corridor and the corridor itself face an area without any pavement, which is surrounded on three sides by walls dug out of the "fill" of the foundations of the building above.To conclude this rapid description of the monument its major attraction being the magnificence of the structure we must remember that, in the course of the excavations, "several identical clay votive offerings" in the form of "a bust of a veiled woman with a mitre". Also a bust of Alexander Severus was found (later transferred to the Vatican). The large bronze torch, made up of four detachable pieces (the uppermost has a flame-shaped container for oil, while the lowermost comes to a sharp point) was found in the surrounding area and later acquired by the city of Rome. But the most remarkable and original testimony is offered by the nearly one hundred examples of graffiti none of which have come down to us, though they were fortunately transcribed and published immediately after they were discovered. Between 215 and 245 A.D. they were scratched into the plastering of the barracks walls by the guards themselves during their rest periods. They cast light on the organisation of the guards and their life in the barracks. The graffiti include not only salutations to the emperors and thanks to the gods particularly the divinity of the excubitoium , but also names and numbers of the cohorts, and names and ranks of the guards. Great mention is made of the "sebaciaria" a service otherwise unknown, and therefore of difficult and controversial definition. From reading the graffiti, it seems that the duty lasted one month and involved a certain risk alluded to in the expression "omnia tuta" (all in order) while the tiring diligence required by the activity is testified to in the phrase left by guard on duty: "lassus sum successorem date" the derivation of the word from "sebum" (tallow), various hypotheses have been put forward. The most accredited seems that of a night duty of guarding the city by light of tallow torches. As has already been stated, the "POLICE GUARDS OF ANCIENT ROME" were a corps with the duty to extinguish and prevent fires as well as police the city. During the Republic, the fire brigade duties were handled by the "tresviri capitales" (later also called "tresviri nocturni" ), which employed a body of slaves, the number and organisation of which is unknown. In 6 A.D. Augustus completely reformed the service, constituting the city guards. Added to their fire-fighting duties was a nocturnal policing activity: against fires, house-breaking, thieves and so on. He also established that they were to recruited from the freedmen; and after six years (later reduced to three) of service, they were entitled to Roman citizenship. Seven cohorts each of 1,000-1,200 men and subdivided into seven "centuriae" of 100-160 members formed the corps of guards under the command of a "praefectus vigilum" chosen from the order of knights. Based on the Augustan division of the city into 14 zones, each cohort had to cover two of them. They had a barracks ("statio") in one and a detachment a group of guards "excubtorium" in the other.
Each cohort was commanded by a "tribanus" ; similsrly each "century" had a centurion, supported by his non-commissioned officers "adiutores centurionis" . In each unit there were then soldiers who specialised in certain duties: "aquarii" , in charge of pumps and water sources (therefore comparable to a modern-day fire-brigade); "balneari" , on duty at the public baths; "horreari" , Warehouse guards; "carcerarii" , prison guards; "quaestionarii" , for the questioning of prisoners. Of all the duties, the most important and demanding was fire-fighting so often necessary in a city with multi-story houses built in wood, particularly in a quarter like Trastevere which we must picture with narrow streets often blocked by merchants' stalls and counters. To this must also be added the importance of fire in antiquity the primary element for cooking, lighting and heating. If the Augustan organisation guaranteed an emergency fire and public order service throughout the city, it's interesting to know also the instruments the guards had for fire-fighting. Apart from poles, ladders and ropes ("funes"), they also used "centones" a type of large blanket with which, when wetted, flames were suffocated or isolated. We know also of siphon-type pumps ("siphones") for moving water through the pipes when they didn't use the simple system of passing containers ("hamae") or reed buckets ("vasa spartea"). This latter is the source of the disparaging term "sparteoli" that the people used for the fire-fighters.

Testo di Anna Maria Ramieri
From Roma of Filippo Coarelli - Ed. Laterza 1995




Sight of the Excubitorium from the modern income.





 

Mithraeum of Circus Maximus

The statue of Mithra while it kills the Taurus.
The restructuring in 1931 of one wing of the ex-pasta factory Pantanella -- bought by the city of Rome in the '20s, and transformed to house the Museum of Rome -- sparked off a vast and fortunate archaeological exploration. During the work a segment of "cloaca" of the Republican period was found at a depth of 14 metres. It was under a building of the 2nd century A.D., which was rendered fit for use at the end of the restoration in 1939.
The impressiveness of the complex, built in brick, together with its alignment on the ancient Via Ad duodecem Portas ( the modern Via dell'Ara Massima di Ercole ) makes it probable that it was a public building of unspecifiable use. To support this hypothesis is the presence on the east side of two wide staircases leading to the first floor. These were added -- still in the 2nd century A.D. The third -- and most radical -- transformation is testified to by the mithraeum built within the rooms of the existing ground floor in the 3rd century A.D. Such a placing is peculiar to Mithraic sanctuaries, which was never a independent, isolated building, but rather normally placed within an existing building -- usually in a secluded area, or partially or completely underground. Furthermore, this permitted the reproduction of the primitive grotto of Mithras -- whence the place of worship was given the eloquent name of "spelaeum", "specus" or "spelunca". Through the use of various devices an atmosphere of particular concentration was created in the "spelaeum" -- the covering of the rooms with a vault; a sober, studied lighting; the positioning of the entrance to one side, in order avert indiscreet glances from the central area where the rites were celebrated.


View of with of the Mithraeum.
The Mithraeum of the Circus Maximus is inside the zone of the "Forum Boarium" -- the plain limited by the Capitoline, the Palantine and the Aventine Hills and the Tiber. This area is remember in historical tradition as the most ancient site of activity -- even prior to the legendary founding of Rome ( 753 B.C. ). The "Forum Boarium" made a determining contribution to the birth of the urban nucleus that became Rome.
The importance of this market area is easily explained by its privileged topographical position; it is on the bank of the Tiber, near the Tiberine island -- which made fording the river easy . It became the meeting place of the lines of communication between Campania end Etruria, between the Tirrenian Sea and the inland areas.
Therefore, there was a flourishing commercial activity in this "emporium" -- also because of the presence of foreign merchants. There were also, as it were, international relations and intense cultural exchanges -- all favoured by the natural landing-place in the bend in the river, which in the historical period became the "Portus Tiberinus".

Atmosphere with pavement in round marble and of alabaster.
The present-day remains of the Mithraeum of the Circus Maximus belong to a sanctuary of the 3rd century A.D. -- made up of a group of five rectangular rooms, side by side, on the ground floor of a 2nd century building. The small sanctuary is composed of a vestibule -- to the right of which there is a service room -- and the sanctuary proper. The right hand side is occupied by a brickwork counter for the banquet of the worshipers. There are niches in the walls and in the headboards of the dividing walls, some of which are decorated with aedicules. The flooring is sheets of marble that have been re-used, while a large amphora is still imbedded under the arch of the central passageway.

There are two reliefs. One bears the votive inscription of Tiberius Claudius Hermes -- the person who dedicated the sanctuary -- and shows Mithras killing the bull. He is surrounded by the two "dadofori" ( torch-bearers ) Cautes and Cautopates, by the Sun and the Moon and by the Raven. Below and to the left Mithras is again shown, this time carrying the dead bull on his shoulders. The other, smaller relief is on the far wall and repeats the iconography of the sacrifice of the bull.
 
 

Sources: "F.M.R." n. 61 - G.A.R. Ass.to Cultura Sovr. Comunale: D.ssa A.M. Ranieri
"Roma Mitraica" by C. Pavia, "Roma sotterranea", R. Luciani ed.

 

Splendid low the relief of the mithraic altar.
 

The Domus Aurea

The Nimphaeum of Domus Aurea
The fire raged for 9 days in the city. Spreading from Circo Massimo, the flames destroyed three of the fourteen districts in Rome and seriously damaged another seven. It was 64 A.D., the tenth year of Nero’s reign, the emperor accused by an unfavourable and partly untrue historiography of being responsible for the fire and of having worn a theatrical costume to sing, in front of the city in flames, for the destruction of Troy. As a matter of fact, the Emperor paid dearly for the catastrophe: his splendid home, the Domus Transitoria, was almost completely destroyed. Following the fire, Nero began one of the most impressive urban reconstructions that Ancient Rome remembers and after having expropriated numerous private grounds, appointed the architects Severo and Celere to construct a new majestic imperial residence, the Domus Aurea. The two architects, “whose imaginative courage- according to Tacitus- created, together with art and the wasting of the Emperor’s wealth, eccentricities against the laws of nature”, finished their task in four years: an enormous series of buildings extending over eighty hectares from the Palatine to Celio, from the Esquiline to the Velia forming a sort of large ring around the valley where, years after, the Coliseum would have been erected. On the Palatine, always the site of the residences of the Roman aristocracy and of the Emperors, Nero had his magnificent palace whilst on the Oppio hill he built a pavilion where his guests could stroll and banquet admiring paintings and works of art. Inside the buildings, according to Suetonius, “everything was covered in gold, decorated with precious stones and shells. The dining room ceiling was covered with mobile ivory slabs perforated so that flowers and perfume could pass through the slabs; the most important was circular and rotated day and night like the earth. The baths were supplied with sulphurous sea water.” In the centre of the valley, Nero built the Stagnum Neronis, a large artificial lake, “almost a sea”. The buildings which overlooked the Stagnum were connected with each other by means of vineyards, pastures and woods inhabited by both domestic and wild animals. On the Velia, in the great hall of the domus, stood the Colossus: a bronze statue more than 35 metres high representing Nero with the attributes of the Sun-God, holding a globe in his hand and a crown formed by seven rays each one being six metres long. The Domus Aurea soon became unpopular and roused bitter criticism. Suetonius tells us of a sarcastic phrase which circulated in the city:?Quirites, at this stage, Rome is only one house; migrate to Veio unless that too is occupied by the house”. The Temple of Fortune, part of the Domus, was built in alabaster from Cappadocia and Pliny tells us “thanks to the alabaster even when the doors were closed, inside the Temple there was a radiance that seemed the same as daylight”. The sunlight, reflected in the artificial lake, flooded the buildings and the large portico of the pavilion on the Colle Oppio and was then refracted on the gold which covered the stuccoes on the ceiling. And it is with this light in our eyes that today we must look at the pavilion, which is all that remains of the Domus Aurea, Trajan including it in the foundations of his Thermae. Today the ancient palace of light is in complete darkness and entering a dark gallery, it’s not easy to imagine the oblique wall we see in front of us as the base of a luminous portico.


The octagonal room today
A few steps more and we must?see”through the thick brick walls, the large courtyard which was the heart of the western part of the pavilion and in the centre of which there was a fountain where the water flowed in the sunlight. In the nearby nymphaeum of Ulysses and Poliremo, an artificial grotto with the ceiling decorated in false limestone concretions, the light coming from the courtyard and the portico together with the light from the ceiling of an open corridor were reflected in the pool of water formed from a little waterfall. On the one side of the nypmhaeum is the only statue found in the domus: the muse of epic poetry. Leaving the west part of the domus, the most typically roman, we come to the oriental pavilion, where the architectonic creativity of Severo and Celere achieved spectacular results. The Room with the gilt ceiling, one of the main rooms in Nero’s domus, originally overlooking a large pentagonal courtyard, is overhung by an enormous barrel vault decorated with splendid paintings and with stucco cornices which in ancient times had been covered in a pale gold leaf.


The octagonal room in a 3D reconstruction
On the mortar of the walls remain traces of the marble with which they were covered; so with the aid of archaeology we must imagine the red marble of Tenaro, the yellow of the numidian marble, the white of the pentelic marble, the violet veins of the pavonazzetto marble, the green of the serpentine marble and the pink of the portasanta marble shining in the light that entered the courtyard. And following this imaginary game of lights and colours on the painted walls we come to the real heart of the Domus Aurea, the octagonal room and the adjoining rooms of Achilles and Sciro and of Hector and Andromache. In these latter rooms are conserved some of the most beautiful paintings in the domus; in the octagonal room, physical and ideal centre of the building, we can grasp the magnificence of Nero’s palace. A huge concrete dome, perforated by “an eye” from which light flows in, seems to rest miraculously on slight pillars hiding from sight the enormous narrow walls. A room of this shape was an absolute novelty for the architecture. The Octagonal Room was destined to house works of art, on view to guests who banqueted in the small rooms around the central Octagonal Room. And so from the heart of the domus we retrace our steps, following the darkness created by the thick brick walls of the foundations of Trajan’s Thermae. In the year 104 when Apollodoro of Damascus was appointed to build the Thermae, he eliminated the whole second floor of the pavilion and divided all the spaces by means of galleries with barrel vaults and filled them with earth so as to form a solid base for the new buildings. The precious marble was removed from the walls and floors and every window was walled in. Since then the?home of light”was condemned to darkness. But Trajan was not the first to destroy the domus. After Nero’s death in 68 A.D. only Otone and Vitellio, short-lived emperors, lived there for a while. Already in 80 A.D. in virtue of a policy in favour of the population and contrary to that of Nero, the Amphitheatre Flavio was inaugurated, exactly on the same spot where the Stagnum neronis had previously been. The new construction was called Coliseum because it was near to Nero’s colossus. In the same year, in the northern part of the valley, were inaugurated Tito’s Thermae. In 92 A.D. Domitian opened his new palace on the Palatine hill, built on the same site where Nero’s had been. In 104 A.D. the pavilion on the Oppio hill was destroyed by a fire and Apollodoro of Damascus began works on Trajan’s Thermae. In 135 as Hadrian wanted to build a temple dedicated to Venus in Rome, he moved the Colossus nearer to the amphitheatre (it needed 24 elephants to move it). Fifty years later, Comodo substituted Nero’s image with his and after his death the statue symbolized the Sun until it was destroyed during the Gothic invasions. With the loss of the Colossus the last recollection of Nero’s domus was lost, forgotten for centuries. Not until 15th century were traces found, when the first visitors began to enter the rooms of the domus, now underground. Artists such as Ghirlandaio, Pinturicchio, Perugino and Filippino Lippi ventured into the grottos in order to admire the paintings, leaving their signatures engraved on the vaults. So now the decorations in the domus once again acquire vision in the form of those “grotesques” which are found on the pillars and walls of many Renaissance works of art. Artists and curious people continue to visit the rooms of the domus until the end of 17th century and then once more darkness. It was in the middle of the 18th century that visits to the domus began once more with an archaeological intent which gave rise to a re-discovery which has reached us. Today the restored domus is open to the public and seems to have newly acquired that light which dazzled and sometimes offended Nero’s contemporaries.

Rome's Carnival

Naughy Fountain

Magic Door

 

Although Rome's Carnival died out over one century ago, it represents a milestone among the city's most important folk traditions. It consisted of a huge public festival that lasted eight days, and ended on the night of Mardi Gras, with the beginning of Lent. Actually, the celebrations started eleven days earlier, on Saturday, but since races and fancy costumes were forbidden on Fridays and Sundays, the Carnival days were only eight.
 

SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRY	SAT	SUN	MON	MARDI GRAS

The use of holding fancy events before Lent began during the 10th century, although in those days the festival consisted of games and tournaments, which only later turned into street celebrations. It soon became one of the most awaited events of the year, which also people from other places came to Rome for. During the Renaissance, the fame of Rome's Carnival was even greater that that of the renowned Carnival of Venice.

 

	The importance of this festival for roman people was enhanced by the fact that only during this short period some austere laws concerning public order, mainly based on religious principles, could be broken. The police was strict in having them observed during the rest of the year, particularly during the forthcoming Lent, when even theatre plays were forbidden not to disturb the Easter spirit.

Therefore, during Carnival the people could take some liberties, also towards the ruling classes (the clergy and the noble), which in other periods of the year would have caused an arrest, or worse. And despite Carnival too had its own laws and rules, it was not unlikely to indulge in excesses of all kinds (food, wine, sex, violence), which caused several people, not only of the low class, to die or to fall ill. And under many popes, but particularly under Sixtus V, Carnival was a time in which the executioner was given extra work.

 

However, the celebrations did not take place automatically: every year the people awaited a specific edict by the pope, which gave the permission to hold the festival. Usually, during the Jubilees (or Holy Years) the whole program was cancelled; no theatre plays nor dances nor any other fancy event took place in any part of the year, replaced by a great number of religious rites, processions, and so on. Also the death of a pope could cause the carnival to be cancelled (for instance, this is what happened in 1829, when Leo XII died).

Furthermore, during these days many popes feared revolts, because the opportunity of going around wearing masks enabled rebels and outlaws not to be easily recognized.
 

piazza Navona in the 1400s

Therefore, in times of unpopular measures, such as the issuing of new taxes, or the like, any pretext could be used to cancel street celebrations and fancy costume parades. For instance, in 1837 the official reason claimed was an outbreak of cholera. The first Carnival celebrations were held in piazza Navona, still called platea in Agone, where since the Middle Ages the Municipality organized bullfights and knight tournaments; the latter consisted in hitting a revolving target (the so-called Saracen) or in collecting hanging rings with the point of a spear.

After some time, games were held also by Testaccio Hill, next to the south-western boundary of the old city walls, practically a desertic area. Besides the aforesaid entertainments, on this spot another blood-shedding event took place, known as the rolling of the pigs.
 

A number of small carts carrying alive pigs were towed on top of the hill, from where they were pushed along its steep side; rolling down, the carts tilted and smashed, while at the bottom of the hill a great crowd gathered, competing for the animals (or what was left of them) in a huge and bloody brawl.	Monte Testaccio in a 16th century engraving: a carnival bullfight is in progress

Around the mid 1400s pope Paul II had the celebrations moved; as he came from Venice, he took the occasion for enhancing the prestige of his newly built Palazzo Venezia, in piazza Venezia, by the basilica of St.Mark (how could he ever feel homesick!). The chosen site of the carnival festival was the adjacent via del Corso, in those times still called via Lata (the city's northern district, during the Renaissance), which in ancient Rome had been the urban stretch of the Flaminian way.
 

Here the common people's fantasy gave birth to another bizarre and rather cruel competition: a race along the 1.5 Km-long street (1 mile), run by dwarfs, cripple and deformed participants, ...and elderly Jews. The people enjoyed watching the strange competitors, and made fun of them, also throwing all sorts of trash. In 1667 Clement IX put an end to this barbarous custom, but ever since the Jews had to pay for most of the carnival's expenses, and had to endure the shame of the festival's opening ceremony.

The Chief Rabbi of the community went to the Town Hall, on the Capitolium Hill, and kneeling before the Senator and the Conservators, i.e. Rome's public administrators, he pronounced a declaration of self-contempt, to which the Senator replied with the words: Go! For this year we tolerate you, and gave the head of the roman Jews a kick in his rear! But besides this, also harmless events took place: fancy costume parades (characters inspired by the Commedia dell'Arte, such as Harlequin, were particularly popular), dances that lasted all night, the throwing of pellets made of coloured chalk called confetti, and small fragments of coloured paper called sbruffi.

The Candle Race in Via del Corso (detail), by I. Caffi (1850 c.)

personages wearing masks (Jan Miel, Rome's Carnival, 1653); the one below wears the fancy costume of a Swiss Guard

The final act of Rome's Carnival, on the night of Mardi Gras, was the charming Candle Race, in which participants carried a candle or a small lantern and, as they ran, they tried to put out others' lights. During the day, many wore fancy costumes. After sunset this was still allowed, but without wearing a mask, for security reasons; these masks, made of wax or papier-maché, were so popular that the sellers made a real business out of them over the carnival days. Also priests, friars and nuns could have fun, yet within their own convents (not in the streets); they could enjoy music, dances, rich meals, and even wear fancy clothes, if they were not outrageous. The only fancy clothing that enclosed nuns were allowed to wear, though, were the actual clothes of their own confessors!

The most awaited event was the Barbary Race, i.e. run by Barbary horses (a North African breed), somewhat low but rather muscular; among the roman folk, this race had replaced the one run by freaks, no longer allowed. It was held eight times, one for each of the carnival days, and it took place just before sunset.

The Barbary Horses' Start, painting by G.F.Perry, 1827		The Barbary horses raced without a jokey, starting from piazza del Popolo and reaching at full speed the opposite end of via del Corso, piazza Venezia, which used to be much smaller than the vast place it is now. Here a tarpaulin was hung so to stop the horses, while a number of grooms, boasting their courage and strength, dashed among the animals in the attempt of clutching them (the so-called catching of the Barbaries), amidst a great chaos. As a prize, the owner of the winning horse was awarded an embroidered banner, made of precious fabric, obviously payed for by the Jews.

What made the race dangerous for the same spectators was the narrow width of the street, completely packed.
 

The high class watched the race from the many balconies (on this occasion they were rented), but most of the crowd stood in the street, standing on a somewhat tall and narrow pavement, now no longer there, that ran along both sides of the road.		The catching of the Horses popularly known as Barbaries, in piazza Venezia after the race of Rome's Carnival is the title of this engraving by Bartolomeo Pinelli

via del Corso, as it is today

In 1874, during the race a young boy thoughtlessly crossed the street while a horse was coming, and died under the eyes of the royal family. King Victor Emmanuel II cancelled the event, which was never held again. This marked the end of the race, but also that of Rome's Carnival, as they were so closely related. Nowadays only its faraway memory is left, in the very name of via del Corso (more or less "Race Street").

 

 

A Naughty Fountain
the scandal of the naked Naiads

 

Piazza della Repubblica, once called piazza dell'Esedra (a name still in use by many people of the old generation), is one of Rome's busiest spots, a wide crossing close to the central train station yet within the city's historical centre, former site of the huge Baths of Diocletian, whose surviving exedra gave the place its old name. In the middle of the square is a large fountain named after the figures of the four Naiads, or water nymphs, which decorate its sides.

the Fountain of the Naiads, in piazza della Repubblica

the Naiad of the Oceans	The story of this fountain dates back to the late 19th century. Pope Pius IX had a new aqueduct built, which was finished in 1870, just a few days before Rome was taken by the Italian troops. Named Acqua Pia-Marcia (after the ancient Aqua Marcia, built in 144 BC, and after the pope's own name), it had its main output about 80 metres (or yards) off the the present fountain, towards the station. Only a few years later, the new government decided to refurbish the whole place, and a larger fountain was built on its present location. By that time it simply looked as a series of basins at different levels, since no statue decorated it yet. But the general impression of the people was that the new fountain was still missing something. In fact, on the occasion of an official visit by the German emperor William II, lions made of plaster were temporarily placed in the four corners of the fountain, to improve its look.

The people of Rome complained against this fake solution, and the municipality decided to have real statues steadily made for the structure. A Sicilian artist, Mario Rutelli (incidentally, the grandfather of Rome's former mayor Francesco Rutelli), was given the commission for this work.

the Naiad of the Underground Waters	The figures were to represent four water nymphs: the Naiad of the Oceans, the Naiad of the Rivers, the Naiad of the Lakes and the Naiad of the Underground Waters, each one with an allegorical animal recalling their respective environments. However, nobody imagined what the artist would have concieved, because when the statues were finally set into place the population was shocked by the result: four completely naked young female figures whose bodies, soaked by the water, shone in the sun.	the Naiad of the Lakes

 

the Fountain of the Naiads as it appeared around 1900, surrounded by a fence and still lacking the central group	Initially, the fountain was surrounded with a fence. But this proved a useless deterrent, because young men from many districts kept crowding this site to admire the shapely Naiads, while the conservative wing, faithful to the old papal government, fought to have them taken away in the name of morality and decency. The municipality took position in favour of the "progressive" side: in 1901 the fence was finally removed.

But the decoration for the central and uppermost part of the fountain was yet to be made.
 

the Naiad of the Rivers		Rutelli, probably disappointed by the commotion caused by his work, prepared a rather unusual group that featured three human figures, a dolphin and an octopus, tangled together in a wrestle. On the occasion of Rome's International Exposition, in 1911, the first model made of mortar was set on top of the fountain, waiting to be replaced by the final version in bronze. But the group received sarcastic comments, and was nicknamed "the fish fry of Termini". The artist soon made a further one with a male figure embracing a dolphin, which received a warmer welcome.		Rutelli's "fish fry"

The model of the "fish fry", instead, was moved to the gardens of piazza Vittorio Emanuele, where it decorated a small pond. In the early 1970s, due to the works for the subway station below the square, the pond had to be removed and was filled up, while Rutelli's group was left on the spot, once again without a purpose. Despite the critical conditions of its figures, many details of which are forever lost due to the mortar's poor resistance and to the deposits, it has been recently restored as much as possible.

The Magic Door
And The Alchemic Circle Of Villa Palombara
 

 

Piazza Vittorio Emanuele (simply piazza Vittorio for the locals) is one of Rome's largest and busiest squares, located in the heart of Esquilino district. Built and arranged in its present shape in the late 1880s, the square is enclosed on all four sides by huge buildings in the typical late 19th century style, with a continuous series of arcades at ground level, crowded with shops, many of which run by members of the numerous Chinese community.

In its centre is a large garden, at whose northern end stand the imposing yet decadent remains of the nymphaeum of Alexander Severus (3rd century), popularly known as Mario's Trophies, also mentioned in Fountains, part I page 1); this relic reminds us of the ancient history of the district, inhabited since the 7th century BC, where during the imperial age several wealthy Romans owned rich suburban estates, which benefitted of the net of water ducts that entered Rome flowing along the course of the nearby city walls.

the garden of piazza Vittorio, with Mario's Trophies at the back

 

Villa Palombara, highlighted in yellow, in a map of 1676; the blue arrow indicates the present location of the Magic Door, while the blue dots show the extension of the modern piazza Vittorio; the blueish area on the left is Villa Montalto, owned by Sixtus V

Very little of the ancient splendour survived the Middle Ages. But when the acqueducts were restored, from the late Renaissance to the Baroque age, the Esquiline district became once again a favourite site where to build large villas, such as Villa Montalto, the enormous property privately owned by pope Sixtus V, lavishly decorated with fountains carved by famous artists (see Fountains, part III page 6). During the mid 1600s, next to the aforesaid estate stood Villa Palombara, much smaller in size, whose location almost matched the area of the present piazza Vittorio; it belonged to Massimiliano Palombara (1614-1680), marquis of Pietraforte.

As several other members of a small well-cultured élite, also the marquis was fascinated by hesoteric sciences, some of which he actively practised. His wealth and social position enabled him to act as a patron to a number of alchemists. In his villa he also held meetings, attended by other important personages who shared his interests, such as the Swedish queen Christina, who lived in Rome after having abdicated, the distinguished astronomer Domenico Cassini, the renowned scholar Father Athanasius Kircher, and others. Massimiliano Palombara was a member of the Rosicrucians; this was a famous hesoteric order, whose symbol was the Rose Cross. It was first founded in 1407 by a German occultist named Christian Rosenkreuz (he might have never really existed), who completed his studies in the Holy Land. The order had died out in the 1500s, but it had been refounded in the early 17th century.

the so-called Magic Door, the only surviving trace of Villa Palombara

 

Rosicrucian symbol of the Rose Cross

The Rosicrucian doctrine covered several scientific fields. Its practises, though, were always tinged with mysticism, and were based on the idea that only initiated adepts could achieve the secrets of such knowledge, in this being the forerunner of modern freemasonry. Therefore, Villa Palombara had a small detached outbuilding, probably a laboratory, where the meetings and the alchemic experiments were secretly held, almost as part of a ritual. A young doctor and alchemist from Milan named Giuseppe Borri, who had been expelled from the Jesuit college where he studied due to his great interest for occultism, came to Rome and joined the circle of Villa Palombara.

 

A legend says that Borri, sponsored by the marquis, carried out several experiments, trying at his best to find the mythical philosopher's stone, that would have enabled him to turn matter into gold. But one night he suddenly fled - this really happened, after being stalked by the pope's Inquisition - and left behind a number of papers inscribed with complicated formulae that nobody was able to interpret. So Massimiliano Palombara had them inscribed on the doorway of his laboratory (or, according to a different version, the same Borri inscribed them, before leaving). Unfortunately Villa Palombara was completely demolished in the second half of the 1800s, when the new district was built.

the disc above the door

 

the Magic Door was the entrance of the villa's alchemic laboratory

The only small part spared was the very doorway of the detached outbuilding, what today is known as the Magic Door of piazza Vittorio, although Alchemic Door would have been a more appropriate name. During the 20th century it was slightly moved from its original location, and set at the back of the huge nymphaeum's remains, enclosed by an iron railing. It consists of a small doorway, now walled up, surrounded by a white stone frame covered with alchemic symbols, and flanked by two weird-looking statues.

 

Above the door hangs a large disc ([1] in the picture on the right) featuring a double triangle in the shape of the six-pointed star of king Salomon, encircled by the motto [2] TRI SVNT MIRABILIA DEVS ET HOMO MATER ET VIRGO TRINVS ET VNVS, "three are the wonders: God and man, mother and virgin, the one and three". A circle topped by a cross [3] overlaps the star, and bears a further motto CENTRVM IN TRIGONO CENTRI ("the centre is in the triangle of the centre"). On the top part of the frame, a writing in Hebrew script [4] reads RUAH ELOHIM, "Holy Spirit"; immediately below [5] is a mythological reference to Jason: HORTI MAGICI INGRESSVM HESPERIVS CVSTODIT DRACO ET SINE ALCIDE COLCHICAS DELICIAS NON GVSTASSET IASON ("the dragon of the Hesperides watches over the entrance of the magic garden, and without Hercules Jason would have not tasted the pleasures of Colchis"). In fact, alchemists identified the Golden Fleece that Jason sought for in the ancient myth of the Argonauts with the philosopher's stone, the ultimate goal of their studies. the invocation of the Holy Spirit

the Magic Door (19th century engraving)

The vertical parts of the frame, [6] and [7], bear symbols of the planets (each of which corresponded both to a god and to a metal), and mottos in alternate order, from the top to the bottom, reading as follows: