Restoring Reason, Beauty, and Trust in Architecture, Part 6: Rome and its Myth of Eternity

How do we best conserve our architectural heritage? Join Notre Dame’s School of Architecture and researcher María Margarita Segarra Lagunes of Roma Tre University for a discussion on the history, conservation and restoration of the monuments and archaeological sites of Rome, the Eternal City.

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Transcript

Introduction 0:06

Hello. Welcome everyone. It's a great pleasure for me tonight to introduce, Maria Margarita Segarra Lagunes, Maya, if I may. I have had the privilege of knowing her for many years, dating back to my own student days at the Università Roma 3 in Rome. This is where Maya has made significant contributions to the fields of both architectural history and preservation. Maya Segarra Lagunes earned her PhD in history and conservation of art and architecture from Roma 3. University. She is a dedicated full time researcher at the Department of Architecture of Vermetteux, where she also imparts her knowledge on the conservation of architectural heritage. Her involvement in numerous research projects spans the rich tapestry of architectural heritage history, and conservation. And furthermore, she has been instrumental in executing restoration projects on monuments and archaeological sites. Her prolific output includes numerous essays on architectural history and the restoration of monuments, marking her as a distinguished figure in her field. Tonight, Maya will present a lecture entitled Rome and its Myth of Eternity. Please join me in welcoming Maya Segarra Lagunes.

Maya Segarra 1:31

evening to everybody. Thank you. First of all, I would like to thank the Dean of the School of Architecture, Professor Stefano Poligioides, but also Professor Paolo Vitti and Professor Alessandro Pierattini. Because it's thanks to them that I am able today to share with you these images and these thoughts on the myth of eternity of a city like Rome. the protagonist of this lecture is the city of Rome, a pulsating organism in constant evolution presented in its double sense of urbs and civitas, for the urbs is constituted by the built environment. and the chivitas by the social structure that inhabits that earth. Monuments, squares, streets, neighborhoods, as well as ceremonies, rites, and daily life that take place in these spaces Testify to the liveliness and productivity of a city considered from its origin as eternal. But why eternal? Is that makes Rome eternal, feel eternal, and proud to be eternal? Rome, the capital of the most powerful empire of antiquity, is today an unparalleled condensation of historical stratifications. Few cities in the world have been able to amalgamate over the centuries so many buildings, so many styles, so many languages. In fact, unlike other European capitals, Rome was able to defend itself from destruction and radical transformation, preserving in an exemplary manner the essence and meaning of its various pasts. The peaceful resistance, together with the pride of those origins that gratify an exalted, fortifies the basis of this otherwise inexplicable and amazing process, which alternates phases in which the past assumes a passive and silent role to stages in which it emerges again to reconquer its centrality in culture and art. The extraordinary ensemble that we can recognize today as the historic center of Rome is in fact the fruit of a centuries long evolution made up of infinite microtransformations that shape the urban fabric until it acquires its current fascionomy and meaning. Little by little, these spaces have been transformed. Free and built became the chessboard on which the destinies of the Christian world were played out, staying the supremacy of papal dominium alongside the aspiration of the European monarchies which, through international diplomacy, found in this apparently neutral terrain, the fertile substrate for self representations and to assert supremacy in the complex scenario of world politics. In this way, buildings and squares assumed a recognizable role and identity, continually renewed through new interventions and, with the passage of time, formed those exceptional urban ensembles that today are the destinations of millions of visitors. It is thanks to the works of the great artists of all times that today we can retrace the millenary history of Rome, not only through its buildings and squares, but also through its most emblematic symbols, the foundations of the myth of eternity. Virgil Marrone, the most famous of the Latin poets, narrates in the Aeneid that Aeneas, son of the goddess Aphrodite and the Dardanian prince Anchises, Fled from Troy, burned by the Akins with his father and his son as Canus. After a long journey across the Mediterranean, he landed on the shores of the Tarran Sea in a territory located on the coast of Latum. Later Silvia, a descendant of eea, conceived the twins Ramus and Ramos with the God Mars. The twins were thrown into the river by their uncle who was trying to get rid of them, but they were safe because the basket in which they were placed ran aground the marshy area of the velabro, at the foot of the Palatino hill, and a land where the city of Rome would later emerge. The legend recorded by the Latin historian Titus Livius refers that in this place a she wolf attracted by the crying of the twins feed them until the shepherd Faustulus And his wife, Acca Laurentia, found them and took charge of them until they were adults. The Roman historian Plutarch tells also that an adult Romulus, built a place that was called Squared Rome. To do this, he summoned men from Etruria to Rome, and each of them contributed with a handful of land brought from the villages where they were originally from. According to several authors, says Plutarch, this foundation took place on April 21, 753 before Christ. The Romans still celebrate this day by calling it the birthday of their homeland. From the very act of its foundation, the river Tiber played also a decisive role in the consolidation of the myth of Rome. Indeed, in the long historical period that accompanied the evolution of the city, the river acquired its own character. Personified in the allegorical universe of divinities as the Divus Tiburinus, indissolubly linked to the feminine presence of the goddess Roma. The Tiber is the way through which all goods reach Rome. Says Pliny the Younger. Through its channel, any product imported from nearby lands, Umbria, Tuscany, Upper Lazio, or from distant countries like in Africa, in Asia Minor, in the European coast, were transported until it was unloaded in the harbors of Rome. Strategic and extremely important places with imposing structure for unloading and storage. As early as the late Republican area in the Roman provinces of Asha Minner, the cult of the Goddess R symbol of the city and more generally of all the Roman state was widespread. Some representations of the deity date back to the third century before Christ, and were founded on mounted coins. The Emperor Hadrian built, at the beginning of the second century after Christ, on the Via Sacra of the Roman Forum, a temple dedicated to the goddess Venus and Rome. Often the goddess Rome, appears accompanied by allegories of the river Tiber, inseparable companion of the city and source of abundance and fertility. This image you know well because it is Welcoming all the visitors in this university in the plan of Nolli. Over the time, the idea of Eternitas of Rome was extended to the city, Urps Aeterna, and the cult of the goddess was maintained at least until the 4th century, although her myth persisted in the following centuries. At the beginning of our era was already the capital of the most powerful empire of antiquity. At the end of the first century after Christ, under the rule of Emperor Trajan, the empire reached its maximum extension, encompassing distant territories such as Armenia, Assyria, in Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. Dacia, the present Romania, Germania, whose border was protected with the line of fortifications of the Limes, Pannonia, present day Hungary, and more than half of Britannia, Great Britain, as well as North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, the northern portion of the Arabian Peninsula, and Spain and Portugal entirely surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, called Not without reason. Mare nostrum. Our seat. Rome became a cosmopolitan city, welcoming foreigners who were integrated into the administrative life and became citizens of the worlds. Their influence is felt in the language, in philosophy, in the different branches of culture and science, and especially in art and architecture. In ancient Rome, the forum was a space of relationship and exchange. It was the enclosure, perfectly defined from the architectural point of view, which coincided with a place destinated to deal with affairs and business. Its structure and shape favoured the performance of collective activities. Here to the Greek Agora, it was where the political, religious, and commercial issues of the empire and the city were discussed. From the first century before Christ, in the central area, the imperial forums were built in sequence. Caesar, Augustus, Nerva, and Trajan. Huge public squares with perimeters, porticos, and a temple in each of them. here, these are all the squares of the different imperial. of all the imperial, form around the forum and in different areas of Rome, public buildings with different uses arose temples, basilica baths, circuses, stadiums, audience theaters and theaters, aqueduct, cis as well as common or ornamental buildings such as fountains, NIM films, et cetera. But also. Timeless architectural models were devised, such as the triumphal arches, with one or three arches, and the honorary columns, like the Colonna Antonina and Colonna Traiana, taking up in different versions in later times. Assuming the classical language inherited from Greeks based on the three architectural orders Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, the Romans added the Tuscan and Composite orders and adopted the arch, which effectively overcame the dimensional limitations of the Greek Trilithon. In this way, Linguistic models were consolidated and destined to be perpetuated over the centuries. For instance, the canonical superposition of the architectural orders and the arch framed by the architectural order as it is shown in the Coliseum. The Roman construction technique, fully developed at this time, allowed the construction of buildings. It was with the invention of opus cementissum, the Roman concrete, that the most extraordinary constructive enterprises were achieved. With the introduction of the vaulted system, much larger spaces were obtained. Opus cementissum also facilitated the construction of domes with diameters almost 45 meters the diameter of the dome of Agrippa's pantheon. Thanks to the aqueduct, it was also possible to supply not only the palaces but also the great public buildings such as the bath, fountains, and nympheums. The network of road and exurban roads, paved with resistant and durable basal slabs, favored the communication of the capital with all the provinces and the territories of the empire. between the late 3rd century and early 4th century, Rome witnessed the last manifestation of imperial splendor before embarking on a decline that lasted more than ten centuries, and so the population declined drastically from one and a half million inhabitants to 100, 000 in the darkest period of the Middle Ages. In an uncertain and difficult climate, on October 28, 312 AC, Constantine won the Battle of Saxa Rumbra over Maxentius. Without intending it, this victory would radically change the course of history. The following year, in the possessions of the Caesaurium located to the east of the city of Rome, The construction of the Basilica of the Savior, later St. John Lateran, began shortly afterward. On the land formerly occupied by Nero's Circus, in the area where St. Peter had been burned, works began on the basilica dedicated to the Apostle. Two prisons of indisputable importance that nevertheless occupy marginal spaces of the city. These locations, far from the center, were deliberately chosen so as not to distort the precarious equilibrium of a society that continued to participate officially in pagan ceremonies, but that, at the same time, was being irreversibly undermined by the unstoppable wave of Christianity. substitution, reuse, stratification are the processes that most faithfully define medieval Rome. On Christmas Eve of each year, traditional films Blocks of marble from the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, the most important temple in Rome, would fall to the ground. It is a metaphor of the gradual transformation that slowly infiltrates Roman society. Each crumbling piece is a pagan saying goodbye to his old religion to embrace the new faith. It is a gradual mechanism that continues over several centuries transforming the most powerful city of antiquity into a complex organism in which symbolic meaning Reigns over the material value of the building. A city that emerges and is nourished by the ancient city, where churches are born among the remains of classical temples, where the magnificent marble of the imperial palaces is transformed into masonry to construct other buildings and where the huge stadiums or theaters, having lost their original function, are adapted to house dwellings that are sheltered under the powerful vaulted structures. In this inexorable process, Christianity makes its way and asserts itself, masterfully saturating the void left by the decadence of the Roman Empire. However, although the greatness of the past fades away, it does not disappear completely. It remains on mute, survives the barbarian invasions, witnesses the bloodshed. the warning of its importance with the transfer of the capital of the empire to Constantinople and accompanies the city in all events that affect it, becoming a myth, a legend. The historical sources of this period are contradictory. on the one hand, they praise the grandeur of the palaces and pagan temples still standing on the, and on the other They exalt the faith and devotion of the Christians who gathered in the catacombs around the of the saints and Martis, who in provisional chapels that gradually made their way into the street of the city. A series of issued in the course of the fourth century, gradually reduced the worship of the pagan gods in 410, the first sack of Rome by Ric King of the visit takes place. It is only the beginning of a series of invasions that will descend on the peninsula from this moment. In a land strewn with ruins, the remains of ancient pagan temples, the first titulus were established from the first century after Christ. A fundamental condition of the titulus was the cult of martyrs. Confirmed by the presence of relics that were deposited under the altar at the moment of the consecration. Very soon, a link was established between the titulus and the presbyter who resided in it. Over time, they were left in the hands of the cardinals, assuming the name of the cardinal titulus. In the Ain Sidhelm itinerary, one of the oldest guides to visit the eternal city written between the 8th and 9th century, numerous churches and titulus still existing today are already mentioned. To build or adapt these churches and chapels, ancient structures were reused. The colonnades of pagan temples were covered with walls and the remaining columns were used to form new buildings. The main monuments of antiquity, having lost their original functions, were dressed with new meanings, preserving the essence of their original sense. The City Guides for Pilgrims, which were published from the 12th century onwards, describe the most important buildings of the city in a concise way. Sometimes, with distorted names, or through the legends that have been consolidated in the collective imagination. They offer present itineraries, since their purpose is to guide the stranger through the intricate network of medieval streets and alleys. They start from the city limits, the walls, the gates, the aqueducts, then go on to list the hills and buildings grouped by typology, triumphal arches, baths, palaces, theatres, bridges, honorary columns, monuments or cemeteries. Equal importance is attributed to pagan and to Christian monuments. The Roman ones, precisely because of their majesty and size, are unmistakable topographical landmarks, parallel to the literary descriptions from the 4th century The first cartographic representation of the city spread. The earliest ones were completely fence, full roam in the shape of lion. Romans a medieval castle, little by little, and with the beginning of the 14th century, the Roman topography is more accurately represented with its main buildings. In Frappellino da Venezia plans, dated, 1323, the river divides the drawing, following a winding path, which places the Tiber Island in the center, while the urban fabric is characterized through the architectural presence of greater symbolic significance. The walls of Aureliano, the Palazzo Senatorio in the middle, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and, century opened in a climate of marked renewal. A few years after the Pope's return from exile in Avignon, The city once again took on a prominent role in Pontifical political interest. With the bull of March 31st, 1425, Pope Martin fifth Colonna formalized the office of the ancient magistrates of the streets. by means of which he could undertake the urban transformations necessary to give a new impulse to Rome, leading it to recover the religious and political centrality that Boniface VIII, with the proclamation of the, Jubilee, undertaken. The reestablishment of this office a specific objective to restore order, decorum, and cleanliness in a city where decadence and disorder prevail, as the bull itself testifies. A few years later, in the middle of the 15th century, Niccolò V Parentucelli, in continuity with his predecessor, promoted strategic intervention of urban transformation in some of the most important internal connection arteries of the Campo Marzio. In all these measures, one can read an aspiration for urban transformation masterfully represented in the paintings of the ideal city, the famous painting made by unknown authors and preserved in Baltimore. This is the one of Baltimore, Urbino and Berlin. which convey an image of a clean and orderly city, thanks also to the parallel renewal of the architectural language inspired by the classical models of antiquity. Besides to the urban interventions, the radical transformation of St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican palaces began in the mid 18th century. 15th century, with the presence of the most important Renaissance architects, Leon Battista Alberti, Donato Bramante, Raffaello Sanzio, Antonio Assangallo, Michelangelo, to mention only the best known. The last decades of the 15th century and the first decades of the 16th century constitute the moment of maximum attention, experimentation, and innovation. Architects put into practice the knowledge acquired by studying the monuments of Roman antiquity, those grandiose buildings which are partly in ruins but are still capable of teaching a language that can be used in the creation of new buildings. Comparable in majesty with those of the Roman emperors. Little by little, in the teeny medieval urban fabric, new immense buildings appeared, belonging to the clergy and the Roman aristocracy, who asked architects and artists for works inspired by Roman architecture. The palaces are variants of the same theme. Decline it with different nuances, but obeying a single principle. To use the lexicon and syntax learned from ancient Roman architecture for the elaboration and solution of new problems. From the second half of the century, the editions of illustrated treatises on architecture Vignola, Palladio, and Sergio, among others. Spread. Offering in a concise manner simplified solutions for the passive and immediate adoption of models whose effectiveness has already been tested and proved beforehand by the great masters of the Renaissance, contributing to the spread of the classical language beyond Italian and even, European, beyond European borders. one wants to point out a century in which Rome radically modified its public spaces, one would undoubtedly indicate the 17th century. The most important interventions were carried out from the middle of the century under the pontificate of Innocent X and above all Alexander VII. What is striking about these places is the persistence of their symbolic value, which is transmitted unchanged over time, even when the environment is modified. These spaces are true scenarios in which friendships and political and religious oppositions are represented. Figuratively, through architecture and art, not only locally, but also precisely because of the specificity of Rome as a capital of the Christian world on an international scale. The St. Peter's Square, this large open space that emerged from the fourth century in front of the Constantinian Basilica dedicated to the Apostle Peter, is probably the axis Much of Rome's history has revolved. When the portico of the Constantinian Basilica, that we have seen in some slides before, was demolished between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, the resulting irregular space took shape and expanded towards the Castello of Sant'Angelo. With a new façade, The Basilica, designed by Carlo Maderno and completed in the second decade of the 17th century, the square finally acquired a monumental front. However, the whole was still unfinished. The frequent and crowded outdoor ceremonies required complex systems of canopies to protect from the sun or the rain the hundreds of faithful who participate in religious functions. It was only in the mid 17th century that this shapeless space became a harmonious whole Thanks to the genius of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the acumen of Pope Alexander VII Chigi, the colonnade, designed by Bernini, is a dia that does not obstruct the view but filters it. Allows light to pass through it and is permeable, but at the same time gives shape to an architecturally imposing void. Two arms that envelop the faithful who visit the Basilica and create a safe harbor, refuge and protection of all Christians in the world. in the space formerly occupied by Domitian's Circus in the first century after Christ, Piazza Navona was formed over the centuries by the buildings that gradually filled it, with housing and other functions that supported the structure of the stands of the Roman Circus. This gave it a very elongated original shape. with one of its ends rounded. In the second half of the 16th century, the square was equipped with two fountains by Giacomo della Porta, and under the pontificate of Innocenzo X, Gian Lorenzo Bernini realized from 1648 a fountain in the center of the square, an amazing sculptural ensemble representing the four most important rivers of the four continents known until then, the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges, and the River Plate. Its recreational vocation continues through the century in this space, with naval battles, races and tournaments, and some toast fireworks hosted. Piazza di Spagna is Probably the place of the representation of international diplomacy characterized by the staircase built by Francesco DeSantis in 70 25. It is the true stage of international diplomacy from its origin. The site had a topographical problem that was difficult to resolve, the slope that separates the heads of the villa from the over time significant foreign presence. France in the upper part with the convent of Trinità dei Monti and later the French Academy. Spain with its embassy and the convent of Propaganda Fide in the lower part. The Caffè Greco, a meeting place for Roman and foreign artists and poets. And from the 18th century, the birth of the English, the house of the poet Keats, and from 1893, Babingstown Tea Room. In the early 17th century, a young Gian Lorenzo Berninian, his father, created the Barcaccia Fountain, an original design that represents a semi sunken boat with cannon shaped jets of water. But it was the papacy that financed the construction of the monumental staircase that would masterfully resolve the topographical unevenness. It is, in fact, a scenographic staircase, which turns its compositional axis to fit the context. Renounces the rigidity of symmetry to dialogue with environment. A strictly functional theme, that of water supply in a densely populated area, was the pretext for the creation of the most famous and most visited of the Roman squares, the Trevi Fountain. The fountain is fed by the Roman aqueduct of Aqua built by in the first century before Christ to supply the already in 1450, 53 Nikola fifth reactivating. The water supply built a small fountain in this place, but it was not until the first half of the 17th century that new solutions were studied. The square remained incomplete until 1731, when in the interest of Pope Clemente Corsini, an architectural competition was organized to design the great monumental façade attached to the Palazzo Poli. Nicola Salvi, the winner, gave life to a sculptural façade in which the complex iconographic program, dense with allusions and symbolism, stands out, with the god Ocean riding a chariot in the shape of a shell pulled by seahorses, dolphins, and tritons. Next to him, the statues of sanity and abundance, two irreplaceable characteristics of water. The Piazza del Popolo, the stage for the entrance in Rome. In direct relation to the Campidoglio, the main entrance to Rome since ancient times, appear as an irregular space in the drawings of the late Quattrocento and also, some centuries after. It was modified with the layout of the Via di Ripetta and Via del Babuino during the 16th century. Later, it was enriched with the realization of the churches of Santa Maria in Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli. The square was the space in which the solemn rite of entry into the capital of the papacy was carried out. The sumptuous processions of carriage accompany monarchs, cardinals, and ambassadors in their triumphant arrival in Rome. The square was completed in the early 19th century with the project of Giuseppe Valadier, an ellipse whose center is marked by the 16 obelisks and that welcomes in its perimeter The twin churches, the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, and, also the ramps of Ascens to the terrace of the Pincho, the hill in the left hand side, amalgamating the different periods in a harmonious ensemble. At the time of Clement XI, at the beginning of the 18th century, the construction of the Great Ripeta Stowaway. Designed by Specchi was undertaken to facilitate the loading and unloading manoeuvres of the port. The stairway became one of the most beautiful places in Rome, with its travertine steps descending gently to the shore, modelled after the footprints left by waves in the sand. One of the most joyful moments of the year conceded to me. with a feast dedicated to the patron saints of Rome, St. Peter and St. Paul, celebrated on June 29. The pictorial iconography of all ages has left magnificent testimonies of the grandeur with which Rome participated in this splendid feast. A series of events, partly coincidental, partly programmed, contributed to awaken among intellectuals and artists, but also. Among scientists in the first half of the 18th century are renewed and profound attention to the vestige of past civilizations. The triggering element was the discovery of Pompeii and excavations at Herculaneum, which for the first time shown sites practically intact since the traumatic eruption of Vesuvius in the first century after Christ. Since the, 17th century, new pictorial genders took the ruins of ancient Rome as central elements of the composition. But little by little, the ways of interpreting and representing them changed, as did the way of integrating them into the natural environment that surrounded them. The Roman Forum lent itself perfectly to combine this memory of a grandiose antiquity constituted by the buildings with a condition of almost domestic coexistence to which the monuments had been subjected. In his Ancient Rome, a highly original oil painting by that Giovanni Paolo Panini produced in various versions in the mid 18th century, he presents a scene that does not take place in the open air. The buildings are transferred to the interior of a large and luminous gallery and are exhibited like paintings. from a pictorial collection. With his Modern Rome, another similar painting, but this time with the monuments of his time, Panini establishes an uninterrupted continuity and an indissoluble link between antiquity and the present, which coexists in the daily life of the eternal city. Also, at this time, the genre of pictorial capriccio is affirmed. A montage of ruins taken from different portions of the city, which are assembled to form singular compositions, sometimes extravagant in the choice of the pieces and the way they are coupled, but harmonious and eloquent. The Roman landscape of the early 18th century is then represented in an idealized way. Nature is accompanied by a backdrop of Roman monuments that, with an opportune use of light, host mythological and Arcadian scenes in which shepherds and sheep lead a carefree life amid the colossal remains of antiquity. These are different ways of recovering a past that lies abandoned, but it's latent and ready to return, cyclically, to remind everyone of the greatness of antiquities. From the mid 18th century onwards, Rome became, as an unparalleled goal of the Grand Tour, the central objective of the studies of European intellectuals, who undertook true cultural through the Eternal City, with the ambition not only to get to know and visit every corner of the city, but also with the fixed idea that these experiences would fit and become part of their own literary artistic Philosophical and architectural creation. To accomplish this purpose, time is required, and for this reason, long periods or even several trips are destined to this experience. a kind of initiatory journey that will allow them to deepen their detailed knowledge of Rome. In this way, the city is crossed day by day and by night, visiting the palaces of the aristocracy and the clergy, but also making phrase into the working class neighborhoods. For it is possible to get in touch with the contradictions and the true nature of the Roman population. The reactions that the city elicits in each visitor are contrasting and surprising. From Goethe to Le Corbusier, the testimonies reflect the complexity and richness of a city that can be walked through, drawn, analyzed, studied, captured, interpreted, and described in a thousand different ways. Johann Wolfgang Goethe, jubilantly notes in his diary of November the 1st in 7088. The anxiety of arriving in Rome was so great and increased with every moment that I could no longer stand still. To be able to contemplate with my own eyes an ensemble whose details I already knew internally and externally is almost like starting a new life. In each of his six journeys, Schwindel, Discovers new places, explores new paths, gets lost in sordid neighborhoods, and advises his reader. I will say to travelers, when you arrive in Rome, do not let yourself be poisoned in any way. Do not buy books. Otherwise, the stage of curiosity and science will soon replace that of emotions. The experience of Rome inevitably modifies methods of works analyzed and Representation and creation. There is no doubt that in this city and in front of every building or ruin, literary architects and artists experience different sensations. Sometimes they stimuli will, this stimuli will resurface. Other times they will remain buried in the deep layers of the mind. A further episode of this narrative is constituted by the designation of Rome as the capital of United Italy, a choice based on the decision to refer to Roman antiquity as an absolute value. Capable of representing a unifying country, a country made of, made up of mosaic and significantly different cultures, traditions, and history. Ernesto Natan, Major of Rome, declared at the inauguration of this monument that was designed to be the representation of the new country. The imposing massif imagined by the architect Giuseppe Sacconi, built on the Capitoline Hill for the altar of the homeland, for the great portico crowded by the Italian region, is not a monument to the king. It symbolizes the dirt Italy. In fact, the solution reinterprets history and takes suggestions from the nearby Piazza del Campidoglio. The goddess Rome, the colossal statues of the rivers, etc., etc. Some few decades later, the I 42 district, conceived by Mussolini as New Rome, proposed a contemporary reinterpretation of Imperial Rome. Planned as the site of the 1942 Universal Exposition, which did not take place due to Italy's entry into the war. The era was the point of arrival of Mussolini's aspiration to identify with the Roman era. However, the occasion of this monumental realization also offers the possibility for young and less young architects to exercise in the realization of one of the most interesting urban complexes of the Roman 20th century. Again, we have in one of the paintings and the interior of the Palace of Congress, the goddess Rome that is representing again the origins of the city, but also, the recall of some of the main monuments of the city, the square Colosseum, and also the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul that also recalls the domes, of course, of St. Peter and other churches in, in Rome. In a climate of renewal and confidence in the future, having overcome the post war economic crisis, In the early 1950s, Rome presented its candidacy to host the Olympics to be held in 1960s, obtaining a favorable vote by, the International Olympic Committee in 1955. It was an unrepeatable opportunity to give the capital a leading role on the world stage. Once the venue was confirmed, preparations began. The master plan provides the construction of new sport complexes. in a strategic point of the city, but also the reuse of existing buildings, once again renewing and promoting the past, which Rome is still proud. In the north of the city, the Foro Italico has been renovated with the construction of the new stadium and the Palazzo dello Sport, an extraordinary work of engineering designed by Annibale di Telozzi and Pierluigi Nardi. With its ribbed dome and central oculus reminiscent of the Pantheon. But surely, the most impressive episodes of these Olympic Games took place in unusual scenarios. The proposal to use the Central Archaeological Area as a space to host some tournaments put Rome on a different level from any other Olympic venue. Wrestling matches took place at the Basilica of Maxentius, the Baths of Caricalla hosted the Gymnastic Meet, and the Arch of Constantine was the arriving point to welcome the marathon champion, the mythical Ethiopian athlete Abebe Bikila. Significant is the choice of symbols and graphic images that represent the Olympics in all communication strategies. First of all, the goddess Rome, eternal mistress of the city, hostess who receives and welcomes the thousands of visitors and athletes. Next to her, the she wolf and the twins, the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine that appears on postcards, stamps, posters, and billboards. This graphic reiterated an offer to the world as the real novelty of the event confirmed once again the immortality of the myth. In recent time, there is no lack of artistic and architectural expressions that revisit Rome's myth of eternity, based on its most ancient and significant symbol. Thus, we have the collage elaborated by Superstudio in 1969 that illustrates the metaphor of Rome's current condition, a city that aspires, on the one hand, To become a contemporary metropolis, but on the other, never renounces to the continuity of his past. Indeed, Rome continues to offer suggestions to contemporary artists who visit it, inhabit it, walk through it, describe it. Its colors, its lights, its textures, its skies, but also its myths and its history are undeniable elements of inspiration for today's universal culture. I can thus conclude this journey through the Eternal City with two recent testimonies. Variations and interpretations of the She Wolf created with various techniques and formats by the New York artist Christine Jones, and the large mural created by William Kentridge, whose creation is based on all those symbols that have contributed to consolidate the myth of eternity over the centuries. Thank you very much.

Introduction 48:37

Thank you for a wonderful lecture, Maja, and what a great introduction to, Rome for our sophomore students who will spend their entire third year in Rome next year. so let's open it up for questions.

1 48:50

About the title Eterna, I have been always wondering why Eterna. Eternity is because the city survived to the time, or maybe because the title is, comes back to Rome, the divinity of Rome, which as Rome was eternal. So in antiquity was called, Rome Eterna. So Venus and Rome was Venus with the eternal Rome. and then it passed through the centuries to become, A common way to, name the city, which is your opinion on that?

Maya Segarra 49:25

I think, both, the goddess and the city, are born at the same time. the, we don't know too much about the Goddess Rome. Because it's not like Mars or Aphrodite or that had been, really described through the centuries. But about Rome, there are very few sources that speak about her. Some sources, ancient sources, say that maybe she was, military. she was, not. Dea Guerriera, warrior. Yes, a warrior because she's dressed like a warrior and maybe it is also because, there are some models in Greece that, can be taken as, as a model, but, in fact already in antiquity they started to speak about romena, but talking about the goddess, but also the city. So this is something that is coincident. So I think there's no different, between the goddess and the city. Both are considered. consider eternal. And, yes, of course, the, and the ancient sources speak, Tito, Livio, and many of them speak about the eternity of Rome already in the first century, before or after Christ.

3 50:50

Thank you so much for this wonderful presentation as you're taking us through the transformations on Rome and how that happened and what caught my attention the most is the period after, like, when Christianity entered Rome and There was this movement of trying to erase the, the history in a way of the pagan, Rome. And that brought to my attention, because I'm Egyptian, like what currently is happening as well in terms of trying to, through the history of Egypt and Cairo, there was this Every new culture tries to remove aspects of a previous culture, which appears on the building. So my question is, how do you think moving forward to have the more modern Rome or modernity, we build that in a way that still preserve the history, but yet adapt to the challenges of the current times. Thank you.

Maya Segarra 51:46

I think in a certain way, Brahm is condemned to be always the same, because today is completely protected, so you cannot demolish inside, at least inside the city walls. It's all preserved by law, so it's difficult to demolish something. And, there's no more space for new architecture. Of course, all the new buildings are built outside the city walls, in the peripheries. And there, there is like a kind of, negation, negazione della storia, yes, the architects seem like they deny history, and so they want to produce other kind of architecture that has nothing to do with, with the city, with the history, with the tradition. in certain interventions. it's, the normal quality of architecture. It's based on a very traditional way of constructing. So buildings are built with resistant materials. You will see even in popular dwellings for workers, et cetera. You will see that always there is, pavements in marble and, good, materials because they are intended to last many years. not to be replaced, very soon. and I think that is a way to be in syntony with the tradition also, because you are thinking always of a long term, not an ephemeral term. And I think that's good in certain way.

5 53:30

the palindrome, do you know what a palindrome is? It's a word backward. So the secret name of Rome, which was taboo, because you would be executed if you ever said it in public. was Amor, which is love. And maybe the myth of the eternal Rome, and that was revealed by Hadrian when he did the Temple of Venus in Rome, it was Venus,

Maya Segarra 53:58

love.

5 53:59

Is that why eternal love came into being?

Maya Segarra 54:03

Who knows? I haven't read any source that speaks about that.

5 54:10

if it's a taboo, there can be no source, right? It's only an architect that could reveal the secret name.

Maya Segarra 54:20

I don't know. I don't know if there is, but I will look for that.

5 54:25

Thank you.

Maya Segarra 54:26

No, what is interesting is that I think that millions of visitors that come to Rome do not know that Roma was a goddess. Yes,

6 54:36

please. Thank you very much for a beautiful presentation that really took us through the city and it's myriad histories, I am curious how this myth of eternity Affects your students, who are studying architecture in Rome and who are thinking about practicing there in their careers. It can, this notion can be both, celebrated, right? But also a burden for a young person who is thinking about becoming. Someone who's responsible for, taking, becoming a custodian of the city, but also someone who might change the shape of it in the future. So how do you students, address this burden to you? does it come up in discussion, being a young architect in Italy, how does this affect them in their work?

Maya Segarra 55:36

I think that, that image of, Superstudio, image of Superstudio is showing exactly the, this contradiction, how architects, live this contradiction. They live in a city that is, the example of history, but they would like to do something else. In fact, this collage is called the Grand Hotel Colosseum. The idea of Superstudio that was a firm in Florence, they, they really wanted to, demythify. the myth of Rome, the sacralization of Rome and the monuments by, transforming the Colosseum into a hotel, like a common, and, I think that the students, live this contradiction. they feel this contradiction and, they try to resolve, but, in Italy, we have, our studies are divided. You have, people that would like to work on restoration and preservation, and people that would like to work on architectural design. And these are two, groups that are not dialoguing between them. So it depends on which group you feel that you are more sympathetic. So if you are a conservator, a preservator, you work on restoration And then, you preserve heritage, and on the other hand, you have the modern architects that would like to just tabula rasa, like Piranesi said, tabula rasa, and then, reconstruct everything modern way. maybe it was, it was firstly, very synthetic, but, what I wanted to express, especially talking about the squares, is the persistence in the same place of the values that come from very far. For instance, Piazza Navona has this, recreational role. the time of Domiziano when the circus was built. But then it has conserved, it has kept this, use and this role. And today is still a place where all different, especially at the end of the year. People gather and go there for fairs and popular fairs, etc. Of course, there are not anymore tournaments or the use to flute the square in the Baroque time to have some naval battles. But now they do not do that, but, it it has kept this significant role. And also Piazza Ispagna or Piazza del Popolo, this entrance to Rome, because it was the main entrance coming from France, from the rest of the North of Europe. So it was like, arrive in Rome, so you have to demonstrate who you are. And so the kings, the popes, the cardinals really made a show of their power and importance. So each one of these squares or these public spaces has acquired a meaning, a role during time. And what is surprising is that they conserve still this wall, of course, Piazza San Pietro. is the most significant of these spaces.

7 59:17

The fundamental question that we're trying to address in this school is whether the classical tradition is alive or dead. And, this drawing is 55 years old. It's two generations old. And those who have been denying the power of a live tradition have built a Rome outside the walls, which is essentially dead. It is dead because it is impermanent, ugly, and unusable. And it has actually consumed an enormous amount of energy and money to go into place. And it's questionable if it's going to last another generation or two. So I think out of all of this, the real question is, are we facing the end of a tradition or the beginning of a tradition? are we facing the expiration? of a myth or the generation of a new city based on a myth that is truly timeless?

Maya Segarra 1:00:21

Yes, it's, it's difficult to say, but, maybe, it's, the contemporary city is really, as you have said, It's ugly, it's not nice, and people live, is forced to live there because they cannot live inside the walls. But if they could, they would move to the inside. But at the same time, the, the historic city is now becoming a scenario, and that's very dangerous. because it's becoming, there are a thousand and thousand millions of tourists that are invading the city. And so people is leaving the historic center of Rome because it has changed a lot and are going to live out. They don't want to live anymore. And this is all A bed and breakfast and hotels and restaurants for tourism. And that's, that's very bad because the city is dying in a certain way, the historic city is dying because of that consume of the abuse and of the use of the city. I think that all the peripheries in Rome were the lost opportunity of architects because, we don't, we cannot explain why. They did not, try to create new parts of the city in continuity with the, historic city, but, they have lost this opportunity. And now the periphery is not nice and it needs. some processes of regeneration, because it is not, very safe, it's not very nice, it needs to be improved to, get a, nice place to live.

Introduction 1:02:12

Thank you all, and on the note of, eternal Rome and, Douglas, this is for you I would like to thank, Maya and all my, audience for being here with us. Thank you.