Museum of Forma Urbis
A wonderful marble map that provides a unique panorama of the urban landscape of ancient Rome: the building of the former Palestra della Gioventù Italiana del Littorio inside the Celio archaeological park, reopened to the public thanks to the interventions carried out under the scientific direction of the Superintendency Capitolina at the Cultural Heritage of Rome Capital, hosts the new Museum of the Forma Urbis, which houses the surviving fragments of the famous Forma Urbis Romae, one of the rarest and most important testimonies that have come down to us from antiquity.
The gigantic marble plant had been engraved between 203 and 211 AD. under the emperor Septimius Severus and probably had a propaganda function and celebration of the power and grandiose monuments of the city. It originally occupied a space of approximately 18 by 13 meters and was displayed on the wall of a classroom in the Temple of Peace, later incorporated into the complex of Saints Cosmas and Damian in the area of the Roman Forum. The 150 slabs that made it up were applied to the wall with iron pins and were crossed by an incredible multitude of thin engravings that depicted the plans of the buildings of Rome in the 3rd century AD, with its neighborhoods, houses, porticoes, temples and shops, at an average scale of approximately 1:240.
After its discovery in 1562, many fragments were lost and dispersed. What remains today is about a tenth of the total plant: of the hundreds of fragments found over the centuries, only about 200 have been identified and ideally placed on the modern topography.
The marble plant has become part of the collections of the Capitoline Museums since 1742. The last overall exhibition of the originals was carried out between 1903 and 1924 in the garden of the Palazzo dei Conservatori; then, until 1939 some significant nuclei were visible in the Antiquarium of the Celio.
After about a century, the new layout of the Forma Urbis Museum restores the marble plan to full enjoyment, promoting the readability of a document which, due to its size and fragmentary conditions, lends itself little to immediate understanding. On the floor of the main room of the museum, the fragments of the Forma Urbis are superimposed on the Pianta Grande by Giovanni Battista Nolli from 1748, so as to allow visitors to take a real journey into the ancient city, and to appreciate the details of the plans up close. . The internal spaces of the museum building also host a substantial selection of architectural and decorative material from the former Municipal Antiquarium.
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