What I find most interesting about Roma is how it has been re-purposed throughout the ages. This is evident in churches that stand on the site of two previous churches and a Roman temple, or the medieval house that used parts of Roman columns, and marble pieces to span windows. It's on a larger scale too. Nobody would even suspect Piazza Navona sat upon the foundations of the Stadium of Domitian, except when looking at Google Earth and the Nolli Plan. It was more intimately revealed by the Fascists in small section of building that shows an arch and columns buried beneath the buildings today.
Perhaps the most impressive example (the most impressive thing I've seen yet that is) of re-use in Roma is the Theater of Marcellus. The theater was important in antiquity for being the precedent for the Colosseum, but during the middle ages was mostly buried (due to rising ground levels), and the top was inhabited by a series of families that would use it as a palace, and in reality a fortress in the dangerous medieval Roman world. It was Mussolini and the Fascist party who would excavate the bottom section of the theater, and reveal it's splendor once more. The fantastic part of it is, the theater is still inhabited. From the Tiber river, you would never know that the buildings were fashioned from the ancient theater.
Roma is not called Eternal for nothing.
Theater of Marcellus as seen in Piranesi's time (Mid 1700's)
No comments:
Post a Comment