PORTICUS AEMILIA: RESTORATION AND ENHANCHMENT OF AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL URBAN AREA

Irma de Ceglia1, Teresa Demauro2

1 Specialized Architect in architectural and landscape heritage, Roma, ideceglia@gmail.com

2 Consorzio Argonauti, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Politecnico di Bari, DICAR department, Specialized Architect in architectural and landscape heritage, Ph. d. Student, teresa.demauro@uniroma3.it

ABSTRACT

Within the archaeological research coordinated by the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, a project of archaeological restoration and enhancement of the monumental rests of the Porticus Aemilia has been elaborated. The building, dating back to the Republican Period and whose function probably was related to the activities of the port of Tiber river, is situated on a large area (about 487 × 60 m) and it is visible only thanks to three great wall remains, that visually and historically interact with the tall modern buildings of Testaccio district. The critical point of the project, therefore, is to re-establish both the physical, vertical and functional relationships of the archaeological remains with the modern urban fabric. The theme of the restoration and the preservation of ruins has, in fact, substantially interacted with the perceptual and social aspects regarding the use of the place and restitution of its historical fragments to the community. Different reflections on the possible ways of planning came to light from the thoroughly investigation of ancient buildings, the analysis of architectural stratifications, the study of the bibliographic and archival sources, the identification of degradation phenomena and the laboratory investigations.

The first matter referred to the critical choice on the structures resulting from the dig: that choice has been made according to a conservation intervention, that means covering the Imperial and Late Ancient buildings since the possibility to transform the area in a museum centre would have involved problems of conservation and maintenance that the collectivity would not have been able to afford.

Another step for sustainability results from the active citizens involvement in the archaeological findings and the exploitation of the place through the organization of visits to the excavations and a photographic exhibition in that area. On the other hand, the most ambitious purpose of the project is to allow citizens to be able to use this place again both as a public space of the district and the city and as museum area rich of monuments. In order to ensure the maximum access to citizens, the enclosure have been removed and the original routes have been restored. In addition, the ancient monument has been composed in a way to underline and identify its forms and to be more comprehensible to the autonomous visitors. Such planning purpose, apart from being economically sustainable, makes the citizens aware of the knowledge, the use and the respect of the ancient buildings assuring therefore its preservation.

The project would therefore propose interpretation keys of the remains producing the fruition of cultural heritage which both is able to narrate the history, without overlapping to it, and can revive the relationship of the residents with the historical memory of the place. Such exploitation strategy, if it is conveniently arranged, could represent an economic investment on the unrecognizable cultural heritage which are increasingly exposed to degradation.

Key-words: urban archaeological area, active conservation, enhancement, fruition, social sustainability.