Cante M.

Un edificio romano e il suo riuso nella basilica di San Salvatore di Spoleto

Author: M. Cante

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The article presents the result of a research carried out at the end of the 1990s, connected with the documentation of all the Doric architectural elements reused in the construction of the Early Medieval basilica of San Salvatore in Spoleto (Holy Saviour). Despite the vast bibliography on the church, the problem of the original use and location of the ancient spolia has not been yet focused. In some studies the church was even considered a late transformation of a pagan temple. The original layout of the church, generally dated between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th cent. AD, includes three naves separated by two rows of Doric columns surmounted by a straight lintel. Because of a fire, occurred around the 6th-7th cent. AD, the church suffered serious damages and the colonnades were almost completely destroyed. Subsequent restorations (second half of the 8th cent.) replaced part of the surviving columns, almost completely calcined and statically useless, with large masonry pillars, linking them with the remaining columns through arcades. The still usable architectural blocks were used for the construction of the pillars, where is thus possible to recognize Doric architraves, friezes and cornices. The catalogue of these architectural mouldings, reused mostly in the counter-façade and in the presbytery, was the start point of the research. Through the peculiar characteristics of the spolia it was possible to reconstruct the architectural order, and establish also the type of building from which they were looted, surely a public building. The presence of heart-shaped pillars and the related blocks of architrave/frieze that fit together determine an angle of 90° with decoration turned inwards, allowing to hypothesize the existence of a triporticus. The peculiarities of the architectural decoration of the Doric order lead to date the colonnades back to the Augustan period, or in any case between the 1st cent. BC and the first cent. AD. Hence the hypothesis that the arcades could be those that delimited the Forum of Spoleto and that were dismantled in the 4th-5th cent. AD to build the basilica of San Salvatore.

Archeologia e architettura nell’area delle “Terme di Elagabalo”, alle pendici nord-orientali del Palatino. Dagli isolati giulio-claudii alla chiesa paleocristiana

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At the conclusion of the archaeological investigations into the building complex on the North-East slopes of the Palatine Hill, known in the archaeological literature as “Baths of Elagabalus”, this study clarifies the main building phases of the area, from the Julio-Claudian period to the Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. In particular, three building blocks have been examined dating back to the Julio-Claudian age, destroyed by the fire under the empire of Nero in 64 AD, which apparently were not followed by a new building phase. The construction activities started again under Hadrian, when the area was occupied by a new building, probably for commercial activities, with spaces overlooking the street towards the Forum, included in a much larger urban project, which extended between the Temple of Venus and Rome and the monumental substructures of the Palatine. The Hadrianic building had a short life: already in the Severan period it was demolished to be replaced by a new building of still uncertain use , with a large courtyard and many rooms around, and others opened towards the street. In the first half of the fourth century AD, on the ruins of the Severan building, a new edifice was founded characterized by a large peristyle, with pools and fountains inside the columnades, and by a cruciform hall with a masonry stibadium. A well was accessible through a large staircase, and on its bottom a dolium was placed, whose function is still uncertain. In a period that could be probably placed around the Seventh century, the area – then abandoned – was occupied by a small church with a single nave, whose walls reused in the foundations a large amount of marble sculptures, probably decorating the Severan building.

La meta sudans augustea: note per una sua ricostruzione

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Tra il 2002 e il 2003 nel cantiere di scavo dell’Università di Roma “La Sapienza” nella piazza del Colosseo, presso l’arco di Costantino, si ebbe uno straordinario rinvenimento. Proprio al di sotto della fontana di età flavia, nota come Meta Sudans, emersero i resti, immediatamente riconoscibili, di un monumento analogo: una fontana di epoca augustea del tutto simile a quella flavia, ma di dimensioni inferiori. Oltre ai resti in situ, lo scavo ha restituito anche diversi blocchi in marmo di Luni appartenenti alla decorazione architettonica del saliente. Questi elementi hanno consentito l’ipotesi di ricostruzione del monumento che viene presentata in questa sede.

Between 2002 and 2003 in the excavation site of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in front of the Colosseum, near the Arch of Constantine,an extraordinary discovery was carried out. Just below the fountain of the Flavian age, known as Meta Sudans, the remains of a similar monument has been identified: a fountain of the Augustan age, very similar to the Flavian one, but smaller. Besides the remains in situ several blocks in Luni marble were also recovered, belonging to the architectural decoration of the salient. These elements have enabled the hypothesis of reconstruction of the monument, which is presented here.

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