DAY 2: De-Fence

02.07.2014

Forum of Trajan. 106-112 AD. 

Distance and Depth. Photo:MM

After two days on the streets of Rome I am beginning to step out of a Woody Allen movie and try to look for intriguing moments of the city beyond tourists and their well-established routes. Two things grabbed my attention as I was avoiding site entrances and looking over the edges of archaeological sites...


1. Distance and Depth

The most common typology of historical remains in Rome constitutes from the main piece and the space around it. Main piece is a built form raised above the current street level, usually walls or columns of temples and churches, dominating the city similarly to its numerous fountains and statues. Space around it is usually a large empty (no people) archaeological site - difficult to read area meters below the current street level. Depending on where you approach a historical remain from, there is often a strange distance which alienates the observed structure.

2. Fences

These large excavated spaces are always protected with a fence - like a boundary of a construction site. But as you get closer, you realise there is no construction, that is just the way the city draws its boundaries.

The magic happens in the moments in which modern Rome can’t avoid its existence. In those occasions streets could not be narrowed any further or underpinned to accommodate the ever growing excavated history. They, on the other hand gently touch the ancient walls, leaving no space for even a narrow pavement.

Unavoidable city. 

Leonine Wall completed in 852AD.

Photo:MM