ROME HIDDEN TREASURE: THE UNDERGROUND BASILICA @ 15 Dec 2015

Risultati immagini per basilica di porta maggiore

Rome's Porta Maggiore, a busy crossroads of tram terminals and flanked by a railway line, hides a little-known treasure 9 metres under the present road level. The Underground Basilica has been closed for many years, due to its fragile state of preservation. Recent restoration work by a team of experts, which have involved reinforcing the structure and dealing with water infiltration and deteriorization, have now made it possible for guided visits to the Dromos (the access to the ancient Roman Praenestina Road) and the Vestibule, from which it is possible to see the interior of the vast basilica, with its three naves and semi-circular apse.

The basilica was discovered by chance in 1917 while the Rome-Cassino railway line was being built.The site is unique. Archaeologists have ascertained that it was created as an underground monument and no others like it have been found.

The building is a mystery because no-one has been able to discover what it was actually used for. There are various theories, such as it served as a religious site for some pagan cult or else it was a funeral monument. No inscriptions or funeral urns of sarcophaghi were inside at the time of discovery, although grooves in the pavement prove that there were once bases for urns or tables for offerings.

The interior decorations, entirely in white stucco, are of singularly high quality and almost all allude to female figures and classical myths involving women. The apse bears a tribute to the Greek poetess Sappho in the act of committing suicide. However, it is not a tragic image. She bears a palm of victory in her hand and a nymph is waiting to catch her as she leaps to her death into the sea, while the god Apollo stands at her shoulder to protect her.

Visits continue to be restricted to small groups (maximum 6) only on certain days of the month, due to the fragility of the monument, and prior booking is obligatory.

 

Margaret Stenhouse

 

Info: Tel. ++39.39967700  www.coopculture.it  www.060608.it . 

 

 


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