Medieval Survivals in Modern Rome L. Bianchi Istituto Per Le Tecnologie

Medieval survivals in modern Rome

L. Bianchi Istituto per le Tecnologie applicate ai Beni Culturali, Consiglio

Nazionale delle Ricerche, Area della Ricerca di Roma, via Salaria km. 29,300, C.P. 10, 00016 Monterotondo Stazione (Roma), Italia EMail: bianchi@nserv. icmat. mlib. cnr, it

Abstract

An analysis of medieval buildings in Rome with "defensive" characteristics has been ongoing for the past four years (towers, fortified houses, fortifications on ancient monuments). The research, originally designed to provide a graphic database on architecture, developed to become systematic analysis of individual monuments, of their structural and utilitarian evolution through the ages to the present day. The paper will illustrate a series of cases in point. An additional objective of the research programme, which is inter-disciplinary, is to test non- destructive techniques on buildings to ascertain the various stages of their construction. At the same time, the idea was to produce a prototype geographical information system (urban topographical scale 1:1000) uniting all the related tables and all the information acquired.

1 Introduction

For the past four years, the Institute for Technology applied to Cultural Heritage at the Italian National Research Council has been engaged in an analysis of fortified medieval buildings in Rome, such as towers, fortified houses and fortifications on ancient monuments. The study of such buildings was begun by the Chair of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Rome "La Sapienza". It later developed to become a project proper, with the financial support of the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, as a part of a more general programme regarding the application of new technologies for cataloguing Italy's cultural heritage. The project mainly consisted (Bianchi[l], Bianchi[2]) in compiling an architectonic filing system, or graphical and numerical database, according to the methods of the Italian Central Cataloguing and Documentation Institute (ICCD). The architectonic database was highly technological though

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the system has now grown old, of limited capacity and speed. The data remain valid, however, enabling researchers to focus their systematic analyses on the various features presented by individual monuments, not least their structural and utilitarian modifications down the ages. This phase, in fact, is ongoing despite the restrictions of the Ministry's bureaucratic cataloguing procedures which are rather a bind for the research.

2 Research characteristics

In presenting a series of architectonic-archaeological objects - not just a graphic illustration but highlighting every single element, feature, substance and historical and cultural significance of a given monument - two points are fundamental: a) the first is essential data: constructing a prototypical model for each object of analysis incorporating a range of fundamental information; b) the second is analytical proper, or the capacity of each model to interact with the pool of available descriptive data. Thus a study of each monument today is carried out from many different angles of investigation on a series of parallels. On first approach, the primary and apparently obvious point is to check known sources. These will lead to new lines of historical enquiry via archives to analyse the history, function and designated use made of a building down the ages. This phase might be said to be philological in nature and it has already served in many cases to correct preconceptions, misunderstandings or even falsifications which had become consolidated through time. On a parallel with this, researchers carry out photogrammetrical surveys of the building and analyse the structures it presents. Comparative studies are then made of the type, age, form and use made of building materials and the techniques employed. The data resulting from all these activities is collated in a basic profile, still only in Italian, and organised into related sections, paragraphs, fields and sub-fields. It incorporates every type of information from descriptions of general aspects of the building and its environment to the minutest detail. Again on a parallel with these studies, which are now focusing on over 20 buildings in Rome's historic centre, specifically the Monti quarter and the area adjacent to the Tiberine Island, a scientific and analytical publication has been produced on: the Capocci towers on the Esquiline and Viminal hills; the Grassi tower in Mars Field; the Vallati house at the Octavia's Gate; the Papito's tower at largo Argentina; the towerhouse in via dei Chiavari; the towerhouse in via Tor di Nona. All the original surveys carried out, the historical documentation collated, the archive material, pictures and drawings of the period were all organised into critical essays complete with detailed indexes (Bianchi[3]). A study of this type, whose objects are integral structural parts of a complex, pluri-stratified city like Rome, must also examine the historical and topographical development of the target zone. This means the analysis must go back as far as the classical age, since the topography of ancient Rome has often if not always had a bearing on medieval building work, up to the modern age. For, coming to know a monument does not mean simply analysing its characteristics and physical state but developing an understanding of its relationship with its

Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Historical Buildings 443

surroundings in terms of both time and space. More profoundly still, it means developing an understanding of its very existence, the reasons for it, and of its

transformations. This is one of the main reasons why it is imperative to take an inter-disciplinary approach to research of this type, meaning in full respect of every single scientificfield' sow n method of enquiry, indeed, of the unique, vital contribution and knowledge of every single specialist within an organic whole. In addition, research of this type demands that the whole series of analyses, data and findings, even if they appear to be of a secondary nature, be presented. The purpose of this is to provide a verifiable database for further study, that may be

revised and re-elaborated by other researchers. This broader perspective, which may even seem an over-ambitious goal of applied research that no doubt creates problems of balance in probing all the data proposed, is nevertheless a prime necessity. This research is organised in such a way that it could serve eventual restoration works on a monument because it will be a primary source of data

comprehensive of the building's history and purpose. We all know that any restoration work is necessarily destructive and, for good or ill, it will always modify the existing state of a building irreversibly. Nor is it any secret that restorations, even routine restorations, have always been driven by the most disparate convictions according to historical epochs and cultures of the day, cultures which could be described as "ideological", or founded on

presuppositions of the theoretical kind whatever they may be. This is perfectly understandable and we need not cry scandal in the name of some kind of abstract purism as sometimes happens. So beyond all of that, let me repeat what we all know - that every restoration operation should be carried out primarily in respect of the history of the object in question and on the basis at least of the most accurate research possible into that object's evolution. At the same time, a vital basis must be as much documentary material as possible before embarking on

any irreversible intervention. This, unfortunately, is not always the case and losses are frequently considerable. This is not the place to debate opposing theories and concepts on the issue but it is the place to offer a few examples which have emerged from the study of medieval buildings in Rome. These are buildings ignored or under-valued, which still exist under the modern city structures and which are often closely intertwined with others of the classical age. They are buildings which have endured so many modifications and of such

kind as to be incomprehensible and, indeed alienated, once they have been stripped away from their original context, isolated in busy streets with junctions, and deprived of their original topographical surroundings. Rome witnessed townplanning of this kind between the end of last century, for example, and halfway through this one. It was compounded by indiscriminate structural works and wall refacings in attempts at historical "reconstructions" which were often so well done technically that it is difficult today to distinguish

the modern from the ancient. The result is pseudo-history, in all senses. Of a totally different nature are some of the more obvious, recent cases which I would call vandalism proper, or the perverse thinking of sacrificing ancient structures to modern usage. I refer to the violence inflicted last year on the 16th century bastion of Santo Spirito, the work of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, to make way for a carpark on the Janiculum hill for the Jubilee Year 2000.

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3 Some critical examples

The following are a few cases in point illustrating the need for a global historical understanding of a monument. The first is the case of two towers on the Esquiline hill close to the church of San Martino ai Monti and not far from the basilica of Saint Mary Major. There was a close association between them originally and their topographical positions had been determined by the function they fulfilled and by the geomorphological characteristics of the terrain. The latter are completely altered today and only by a great effort of imagination can one see the area as it once was and comprehend the relationship between the two monuments (Bianchi[4]). The area's original geomorphological conformation, between the low-lying plain of the Roman Forum and the higher plain of the Esquiline, was characterised by the steep, ridged slopes of the Quirinal, Viminal, Cispio and

Oppio hills which each formed part of an upland plain rutted by natural water channels flowing to the Tiber and separated by a valley running east to west. From ancient times, the rugged lay of the land had a bearing on road-building in the valley, a road that certainly dates back to at least three or four centuries before Christ. In the classical age, this road started from the Roman Forum and led straight to the valley's eastern extreme between the Cispio and Oppio hills. It then rose steeply at the level of piazza San Martino ai Monti, proceeded along the bridge of land between these two ridges of the Esquiline and headed out of the city through the Esquiline gate. This same itinerary was used without interruption until the modern age, more precisely until the end of the 19th century. Moreover in the early centuries and middle ages, it was the only link between the city, then restricted to the plain of Mars Field, and areas to the east which were sparsely populated, some of its few inhabitants having settled around the basilica of Saint Mary Major.

Between the llth and 12th centuries when the city began to assume the characteristics of a fortified town at che hands of the leading Roman families who tended to leave their mark on the whole environment, this road was also fortified and kept under surveillance at the steepest point of its ascent to the top of the Esquiline plain by means of two towers attributable to the Capocci family, according to historical research, archive material and toponymical studies. These towers were built to stand guard over the road. Now level with each other, they were built one in front of the other on the opposite slopes of the Cispio and Oppio hills with the valley in between where the road wound its way. They must have held on to their original strategic and military function for a relatively short time. For, they were already serving no such purpose before the end of the 14th century when the two towers were made habitable by the addition of internal dividing floor levels and related staircases. They were thus relieved from duty and alienated. Today, principally in the wake of townplanning interventions between 1873 and 1891 and the building of a new road in a new direction, the site appears to be totally overwhelmed and only the steep rise at the end of the via in S6lci remains to help us picture the ancient lay of the land. Today, the first and highest of the two towers stands isolated in the middle of the piazza San Martino ai Monti. The ground level today appears to be about three metres lower so that a considerable part of the foundations,

originally below ground, are exposed. The ground level between the two towers has been raised and planed off. The other lower tower has been engulfed within later buildings on the other side of the modern road and some of its foundations are also visible. The external wall facing of both towers is totally in brick but the survey showed that only some of it is original. The upper parts and, more evidently, the lower facings of both towers were restored in modern times by a standard procedure of which there are other examples in the city. Materials and sizes, typical of the pre-1940s, were used. The medieval part of the facing is formed by brick fragments of varying sizes, thickness and colour, re-cycled from ancient buildings. This masonry technique is dated at between the 12th and 13th centuries although the dating of facings of this kind remains an open question. Any indications can only be general (Venanzi[5]; Avagnina, Garibaldi, Salterini[6]; Barclay Lloyd[7]; De Minicis[8]; Marta[9]). One of the factors indicating that the two buildings are contemporaries is the design of the original openings in the facings and, in order to ascertain this, both internal and external surveys were carried out. These windows are polygonal and are found on three prospects of each tower. In each of the three prospects with windows, there are three equally spaced openings one below the other. They were closed off in ancient times to leave only slits. This is perhaps the only example in Rome of highway fortifications inside the city, albeit in an outlying area. It is more usual to find this type of fortification, two towers straddling the highway, on roads outside the walls, the Appian Way being one example. This, then, is a point of interest in the planning of Rome that is sadly overlooked, even cancelled; firstly, by negligence, and then by a total lack of understanding of the meaning and history of the structures themselves.

Figure 1: The Capocci towers (A, B) straddle the ancient road (via in Selci, via San Martino ai Monti) and today's via G. Lanza

which cuts across it.

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A second example is the case of two types of 13th century building at the extreme south end of Mars Field near ancient Jewish ghetto. They are the Vallati house and the Grassi tower, two buildings belonging to merchant families who were associated with the fish market. The buildings are almost the same age but no one would say that on first seeing them. In an area packed with classical monuments, near the theatre of Marcellus, the two buildings stand in the zone of Octavia's Gate, built by the emperor Augustus between 27 and 23 before Christ.

5 m. Figure 2: The Vallati house, west prospect, after reconstruction in 1932 (L. Bianchi, V. Mutarelli, 1996).

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The Vallati house was uncovered during demolition works to rid the theatre of Marcellus of the post-classical structures which had grown up around it in the course of the centuries and which determined the current lay-out so far removed from its medieval form. As it is, there is only a remote possibility of relating the building to its surrounding urban context.

I I I I I 5 m.

Figure 3: The Grassi tower, south-west prospect, with its original facing (L. Bianchi, V. Mutarelli, 1996).

448 Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Historical Buildings

0 5m.

Figure 4: The Grassi tower, north-east prospect, with its original facing (L. Bianchi, V. Mutarelli, 1996).

This is made even more difficult by previous demolition works in the ghetto nearby (1885-1889) and by the construction of the via del Mare and the destruction of the quarters at the foot of the Capitoline hill (in the early decades

of this century). All of this served to obliterate entire ages in the life of this area

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of the city. As little remains of the original structure of the building under study. The monument was uncovered in November 1926 and it was generally considered worthy of conservation and restoration. But even as the debate continued about restoration criteria and the building's future designated use and even before works began, the object of all the attention collapsed on the night of November 5 and 6, 1928. Restoration or, rather, reconstruction was carried out by Paolo Fidenzoni between 1930 and 1932 and his criterion was to rebuild the building as similar as possible to its ancient original. So, it developed in the same form and, as far as possible, with the same materials sifted from the wreckage. Today in the absence of painstaking structural analysis, it is still all but impossible to distinguish between the original parts that did not collapse and the reconstructed parts. When the Vallati house was uncovered, it was found to feature an open internal courtyard complete with tower which, in this case, was not only for defence purposes but also residential and similar to other structures common in Rome between the end of the 12th and 14th centuries. The complex, central courtyard and tower, constitute the oldest nucleus of the

Vallati house and, of that, the tower could be the oldest part. The original walls, partly faced in brick and partly in small tufo stone blocks, are dateable at around the 13th century. But for a picture of how the real Vallati house was and, in particular, its tower, the Grassi tower nearby is a good indication. This tower stands on the north-west wall of the propylaeum of Octavia's Gate. According to its conformation, substantially well-conserved to this day, the Grassi tower which was built incorporating Roman and late-Roman structures, dates to between the 12th and 13th centuries. Its composition is simple, in a single construction with an almost square floor plan. At street level on the north-west prospect the door to the merchant's shop can still be seen with its marble architrave and piers, extracted from Roman buildings, and a platband entirely in bipedals, also recycled. The wall facings present features belonging to different ages, partly the result of occasional restoration work on the building. On the opposite prospect, traces of two ramps of an external staircase are still visible. The building's lay- out seems to have undergone no substantial modifications, except for the distribution of internal space which has left its mark on the outer wall facings.

4 Research prospects

A further aim of this research programme, once the descriptive analysis of the monuments has been completed, is to test non-destructive investigation techniques on the structures to ascertain with more precision the building stratigraphy and stages; this, in combination with data from the historical archives and surveys. On a parallel, the tests will also be able to pinpoint causes of degradation, if any. This phase is still at the experimental stage, particularly in relation to geophysical methods of analysing wall composition. It is not yet possible to present any organised data. Together with the tests, a prototype geographical database is being planned and elaborated to urban scale (1:1000). This will unite all the data of the various research activities within a single database composed offile stemporall y and spatially inter-related.

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The intention - albeit ambitious but undoubtedly gratifying should it materialise - is to describe a city in all its parts rather than one or two categories of its components (architectonic, archaeological etc.), and to apply this global overview to every age in history. Another aim is to take this database to the limit so that every single detail is represented in it, without losing sight of the meaning in a more general context but by intervening at each successive level of data. This holds, certainly, not only for the graphical side but also for the analyses of every type of information, including historical data. The general approach to the work envisages an initial geographical information system to an urban topographical scale of 1:1000. Current data and planimetric surveys will be used, checked and updated for comparison with the recent remote sensing surveys, partly on a 1:500 scale and partly 1:1000, commissioned by the Rome City Council. This base will be used as a link to several detailed databanks such as to furnish: plans of buildings; general and detailed altimetre graphs; general sky-line of part of the city, of individual buildings and monuments; overall building volumes by means of graphics; historical, bibliographical and archive data; photographs. The study will also elaborate theme-plans and graphics. Additional elaborations could create dictionaries, case studies and so on.

References

1. Bianchi, L., Roma: tessuto urbano e tipologie monumentali, Studi /towaw, 37, pp. 104-115, 1989. 2. Bianchi, L., Uno studio per la catalogazione territoriale e architettonica del centro storico di Roma, Archeologia e calcolatori, 2, pp. 205-220, 1991.

3. Bianchi, L., Case e torri medioevali a Roma. Documentazione, storia e sopravvivenza di edifici medioevali nel tessuto urbano di Roma, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, Roma, 1998. 4. Bianchi, L., Roma: strutture fortificate medioevali in rapporto all'antica viabilita di accesso all'Esquilino, e loro sopravvivenza nel moderno sviluppo storico-topografico della zona, Pretirages del I Congresso nazionale di Archeologia medievale, ed. S. Gelichi, All'Insegna del

Giglio, Firenze, pp. 86-91, 1997. 5. Venanzi, C., Caratteri costruttivi del monumenti. L Strutture murarie a Roma e nel Lazio, Centro di studi per la storia dell'architettura, Roma, pp. 60-63, 1953. 6. Avagnina, M.E., Garibaldi, V. & Salterini, C., Strutture murarie degli edifici religiosi di Roma nel XII secolo, Rivista dell'Istituto di Archeologia e Storia deWArte, 23-24, pp. 242-243, 1976-1977.

7. Barclay Lloyd, J.E., Masonry Techniques in Medieval Rome, c. 1080- 1300, Papers of the British School at Rome, 53, pp. 225-277, 1985. 8. De Minicis, E., Strutture murarie medioevali a Roma: alcuni esempi di edilizia civile. Notizie preliminari, Archeologia Medievale, 13, pp. 545- 554, 1986. 9. Marta, R., Tecnica costruttiva a Roma nel Medioevo, Kappa, Roma, p. 35, 1989.