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Author Topic: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!  (Read 1510 times)

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Offline Vincent

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Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« on: December 23, 2020, 12:59:33 pm »
Seems if you can do, just do it!

The Telegraph
Italy to reconstruct Colosseum arena where sword-wielding gladiators once did

For visitors to Rome, it will be a chance to see the Colosseum as the gladiators once did as they gazed up in bowel-clenching anticipation before engaging in blood-spattered combat in front of the emperor.

Rome is to reconstruct the arena of the Colosseum, the vast oval-shaped space where gladiators armed with swords, tridents and nets did battle with each other and wild animals imported from all over the Roman Empire.

Tourists will be able to stroll out onto the rebuilt arena and look up at the vast stone tiers of seating that enclose the amphitheatre. The arena could also become a venue for concerts and other events.
submitted by February 1, with the project expected to cost €18.5 million. Work is scheduled to get underway next year.

The stage will need to have retractable segments so that tourists can still view the tunnels where terrified beasts – from lions and leopards to ostriches and bulls - and nervous gladiators awaited their turn to fight.

“We want to put back the arena employing the same principles with which it was first built in ancient times,” said Alfonsina Russo, the Colosseum’s director.

“The reconstruction of the Colosseum’s arena is a great idea that will capture the world’s imagination,” said Dario Franceschini, the culture minister.

“It will offer visitors the chance to see not only the subterranean area, as they can today, but to contemplate the beauty of the Colosseum from its very heart.”

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2020, 01:54:24 pm »
Yes, so not actually a new replica Colosseum but rather a new floor which will replicate the original.  They've been wanting to do this for years.  Glad it is finally going ahead.

Offline Vincent

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2020, 06:07:10 pm »
Hey, Jay, just saw another Daily Mail article that the circular tomb of Augustus has been restored after in disrepair and will be opening up to the public in Rome...

Mausoleum built 2,000 years ago for Rome's first emperor, Augustus, will reopen to the public in March after 14 years following $12.25 million restoration project
Rome's first emperor, Augustus, reigned over the empire for 40 years starting in 27 BC
He had a massive mausoleum built in the heart of the city at age 35 for himself and heirs
The structure's purpose changed from the end of the Roman empire - it was a castle and military look-out
The circular tomb was also once used as an auditorium for bull fighting and then operas and concerts
It was soon forgotten and left to deteriorate before shutting down 14 years ago when it became unsafe
City officials have been working to restore teh mausoleum for the past three years in a $12.5 million project
It is set to open March 1 to the public, with free admission for all visitors running until April 

Offline SC

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2020, 02:50:10 pm »
In the meantime (or at least after Covid) you can watch performances in the fully operational amphitheaters in Verona and Pula.

They sometime do an Aida with elephants in the one at Verona.

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Offline Ron C2

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2021, 10:07:48 pm »
In the meantime (or at least after Covid) you can watch performances in the fully operational amphitheaters in Verona and Pula.

They sometime do an Aida with elephants in the one at Verona.

SC

I've been to the one in Verona in person, it's stunning.  I regret I never got to see the 3 tenor there when they still used to perform together at Verona

Not all many tourists make it to Verona compared to Rome, Florence and Venice - but it's absolutely worth the stop.
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Offline Virgil H

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2021, 09:52:32 pm »
This is so great. I remember the last time I was in Arles (a long time ago), they were still doing bullfights in the Roman arena there.

Offline lawrence c

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2021, 07:02:40 pm »
I was stationed for three years near Verona, and regularly hit their operas and occasional ballets in the amphitheater there. Always a great time. The crowds reminded me more of baseball fans in the US rather than the 'high culture' performances we have here. Speaking of the reconstructions in Rome, I'm always a bit wary of those efforts. There have been too many places where to make them more interesting to tourists, they have managed to destroy the historical value of the actual sites. It will be interesting to see how well the Italian/Rome governments do at this.

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2021, 08:56:21 am »
Quote from: lawrence c on March 13, 2021, 07:02:40 pm
I was stationed for three years near Verona, and regularly hit their operas and occasional ballets in the amphitheater there. Always a great time. The crowds reminded me more of baseball fans in the US rather than the 'high culture' performances we have here. Speaking of the reconstructions in Rome, I'm always a bit wary of those efforts. There have been too many places where to make them more interesting to tourists, they have managed to destroy the historical value of the actual sites. It will be interesting to see how well the Italian/Rome governments do at this.

FWIW, much of what we see of the coliseum today is actually 15th-16th century papal restoration work to stabilize the site.  In my view, a building is a building.  I'd favor a 100% restoration of the coliseum, including rebuilding the entire outer ring of the building.  Archaeologists have a solid understanding of exactly how it looked, so why not?  Buildings that remain in continuous use are always repaired and renewed over the centuries - it does not make it any less the same building. The Pantheon is a great example.

The Ship of Theseus argument comes to mind here.
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Offline Heliodromus

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2021, 09:23:05 am »
Quote
FWIW, much of what we see of the coliseum today is actually 15th-16th century papal restoration work to stabilize the site.

According to WikiPedia any stabilization efforts were later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum

In the mid 1700's it had much of the same appearance as today, very much a ruin (still covered in vegetation at that point), so it's appear any stabilization efforts can only have been that - stabilization - not restoration.

Ben

Offline Heliodromus

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2021, 09:39:47 am »
Here's another etching published in the mid 1500's show it in a similar state.

The BM website has many of these early etchings/paintings.

Ben

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2021, 02:16:31 pm »
Quote
FWIW, much of what we see of the coliseum today is actually 15th-16th century papal restoration work to stabilize the site.

According to WikiPedia any stabilization efforts were later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum

In the mid 1700's it had much of the same appearance as today, very much a ruin (still covered in vegetation at that point), so it's appear any stabilization efforts can only have been that - stabilization - not restoration.

Ben


I could be wrong on the dates, I was going by memory and Wikipedia is not really a complete account.  From wikipedia:

Quote
In 1749, Pope Benedict XIV endorsed the view that the Colosseum was a sacred site where early Christians had been martyred. He forbade the use of the Colosseum as a quarry and consecrated the building to the Passion of Christ and installed Stations of the Cross, declaring it sanctified by the blood of the Christian martyrs who perished there (see Significance in Christianity). However, there is no historical evidence to support Benedict's claim, nor is there even any evidence that anyone before the 16th century suggested this might be the case; the Catholic Encyclopedia concludes that there are no historical grounds for the supposition, other than the reasonably plausible conjecture that some of the many martyrs may well have been.

Later popes initiated various stabilization and restoration projects, removing the extensive vegetation which had overgrown the structure and threatened to damage it further. The façade was reinforced with triangular brick wedges in 1807 and 1827, and the interior was repaired in 1831, 1846 and in the 1930s. The arena substructure was partly excavated in 1810–1814 and 1874 and was fully exposed under Benito Mussolini in the 1930s.

That said, I have been there a few times over the years (the colisseum) and recently (just prior to COVID) took an archeological tour of the bldg as well.  There is a large part of the facade facing toward the Arch of Constantine made of renaissance-era brick that was done by Pope Leo XII who "signed" the work with a plaque in the 1700's (or possibly very early 1800's?).  Here's a picture of it I took last year, the plaque is the bow-tie shaped thing:



And here is me at the site - aren't I handsome? You can see the papal outer wall reconstructions over my right shoulder in brown brick, in contrast to the travertine limestone of the original Roman constructions.

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Offline Heliodromus

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2021, 09:15:18 am »
Nice photos! I've never been to Rome, but hope to make it one day. The Colosseum strikes me as a rather creepy place though - just to think of the horrors and cruelty that took place there. I'm not sure that I'd choose to go inside.

To my taste the amount of restoration/stabilization work you show there is fine, but any attempt to make it "as new" would be a shame. It's one thing for a building that is continually in use to be under continuous maintenance (e.g. in my former home town of Durham in the UK there's a 1000 yr old cathedral that stone masons spend their whole working lives maintaining - rather like the continual process of painting the Golden Gate bridge), but once a building becomes a ruin I'd rather leave it that way. Growing up in the UK there are endless ruined abbeys and castles to visit, which have their own charm.

Here's a couple more paintings of the Colosseum, by different artists, but both from the same time, around late 1700's. This is the interior before the underground portion was excavated. What's interesting about these is to compare them and see the exact same vegetation in both, giving some confidence that these are realistic depictions.

Ben

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2021, 09:41:14 am »
I live in Canada so the cost to visit Rome would be comparable to someone in the USA. It's not insignificant, but trust me when I say, it's a great investment for anyone that loves the history of the Roman era.
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Offline Heliodromus

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #13 on: April 17, 2021, 10:59:15 am »
I live in USA now, but I do visit the UK fairly often (still have family there). I'd like to see more of Europe, as well as more of the USA (national parks, etc), but the trouble is that when it comes to summer vacation time the beaches always win !

Ben

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Rome City to build a NEW Replica Colosseum!
« Reply #14 on: April 17, 2021, 12:11:33 pm »
I live in USA now, but I do visit the UK fairly often (still have family there). I'd like to see more of Europe, as well as more of the USA (national parks, etc), but the trouble is that when it comes to summer vacation time the beaches always win !

Ben


Not to go too far off topic, but central Italy (where Rome is) has a summer that most Americans would find unbearably hot. Italina businesses often shutter through the middle of the day because the heat is stifling.  A typical American summer temperature of between 70 and 90F is normal in the Rome area until Mid-October, and sometimes later.  My favorite time of the year to visit Italy is late September. 

By then, USA beach weather is over in most states, or close to it.

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