Forum of Trajan - 112 AD
Trajan built a huge Imperial Forum which he paid for with the spoils of his war with Dacia, current day Romania, in 106 AD. He took down part of the Quirinal Hill, a depth of 125 feet, so he had room for his forum. Today, there is not much left of Trajan’s Forum, medieval buildings were built over top the forum and excavations have only revealed medieval rooms. Some columns of his basilica remain.
Column of Trajan
The column is 125 feet high, the same depth that the Quirinal Hill was taken down. The column is made out of 29 huge blocks of Italian marble. The continuous frieze which wraps around the column is ~ 656 feet long. The frieze is a sequence of 155 scenes with over 2600 figures (2/3 life-sized) carved in low relief. The frieze tells the story of the two wars with Dacia in 102-3 and 105-6 AD.
Trajan’s ashes may have been put inside the base as there is a small chamber there or they may have been placed on the opposite side of the column. A spiral staircase exists inside the column, which extends all the way to the top.
A 16 foot bronze statue of Trajan in military dress was on the top of the column, but unfortunately, a Saint was put there in 1588.
Okay, we had to talk about Trajan so we can now discuss Hadrian. Trajan never designated Hadrian as his heir. When Trajan died, his wife claimed that Trajan named Hadrian the Emperor of Rome, right before he died.
Hadrian was not interested in expanding the empire, he was only interested in maintaining the empire that already existed. He was a traveller and an amateur architect, these two interests resulted in some fairly dramatic architecture during his reign. Finally, that brings us to today’s adventure.
We had a fine, fine, day today. We walked to Termini, the main train station, to catch a train to Tivoli. Our train was running a bit late, we saw two non-Italian people watching the board like hawks, same as us, so we thought they must be going to Tivoli as well. Turns out, they were thinking the same thing about us. They sat across from us on the train, so I asked if they were going to Villa Adriana. They said yes, they were, but they wanted to go to Villa d’Este first. We struck up a conversation, they are from Wales, so we asked them about the travelling they have done.
A bit later on they asked how we were getting from Tivoli to Villa Adriana, I said we were going to try and figure out the bus system. They decided they would go to Villa Adriana first and then visit Villa d’Este, which is right in Tivoli.
I read about walking over a bridge from the train station into the town, so we found the bridge and stopped at the first tabacchi shop that we encountered. The attendant spoke English, so we got bus tickets to and from Villa Adriana. John then asked where the bus stop was, a customer in the shop said we could walk with her and she would show us the stop. People are really great in Italy, very helpful and kind.
We got the bus and it took us right to Villa Adriana, which was Hadrian’s villa. The Welsh hung around with us for a bit then took off as they wanted to speed through at a faster pace than us so they could also visit Villa d'Este, so we said our goodbyes. They are really nice people.
Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli - Villa Adriana
It was a gorgeous, sunny day, we walked around without our jackets, it was so warm. Hadrian’s Villa was built in three phases during his reign. It was the most extravagant and lavishly decorated Villa built by a Roman Emperor. He travelled the Roman Empire extensively and re-created architecture from across the Empire.
The plan is a clear departure from the Roman plan of symmetry and axiality. Buildings are arranged with respect to the landscape and the setting is beautiful. There was a substantial amount of Greek influence going on at the villa.
Pecile
This large pool was surrounded by a covered colonnade. The setting is stunning.
Area near the bath complexes.
Large Baths, 125-133 AD
These baths were huge for being private baths. There is also a smaller bath house nearby. Note how the vaults are groin vaults which rise up from the brackets. They achieved a lot of height with this vaulting.
Caponus, 133 - 138 AD
This is a representation of the Egyptian canal on the Nile delta which links the city of Caponus to Alexandria. There are two statues representing the river gods, the Nile and the Tiber and a crocodile representing Egypt. The canal-pool is extremely long, the large pavilion at the end had an exedra, which was an open air banqueting hall. There would have been fountains inside the exedra from which rivulets of water flowed past the diners and out to the canal-pool in front. Quite an exquisite atmosphere for dining.
This is known as the pumpkin or umbrella dome. It was a rather daring architectural design at the time with flat and concave segments and deep niches.
The Caryatids sit alongside the canal-pool, they are copies of the Greek Caryatids on the Acropolis in Athens.
View through the ruins to the mountains in the distance.
The Hospitalia was a central hall flanked by cubicula or bedrooms. It is thought that guests at the Villa stayed in this building.
The Maritime Theatre, 118 - 128
This was a beautiful round structure with a canal around the outside. It had concrete domes with columns that followed the curve of the walls. It is thought to have been a retreat for Hadrian.
Golden Plazza
This was likely used as a triclinium or dining hall in the summer. The vestibule had a pumpkin dome while the walls were made out of columns, so it is a combination of innovative Roman design with traditional Greek architecture.
Temple of Venus, 133 - 138
This temple is an exact replica of the Temple of Venus on the Greek island of Knidos, the statue of Aphrodite (Venus) was a copy as well. The columns are Doric, along with triglyphs and metopes on the entablature.
We spent about 3.5 hours exploring Villa Adriana, it is a wonderful ruin set in a glorious landscape, it was an absolute joy to visit. We caught the bus outside the villa to go back to Tivoli which is seriously uphill from the villa. We watched for the bridge across the river to know when to get off. The bus stops right at the bridge so that worked out well.
When we got to the train station I glanced up at the board and saw that the 14:55 train was boarding as the lights were flashing, it was 14:54, so we ran out onto the platform, crossed the tracks, then realized we forgot to validate our ticket. So John ran back across the tracks with the ticket to the validation box. He figured we were too late but I saw the conductor out on the platform and he was waving at John to carry on, so I waved at John and yelled to validate and run back. John ran back so we boarded and took off to Rome.
The train did not return to Termini, the main station, it returned to Tiburtina, so we had to go down to the Metro and buy a couple of Metro tickets to take the Metro to our apartment. The doors on the Metro were closing as we got through the turnstiles so we were prepared to wait for the next train. The Italians don’t wait for anything, a woman was part way through the doors and strong-armed them open. Then the doors shut, then opened again, so a group of us got on, the passengers on board appeared disgusted that somebody else must have opened the doors and prevented the train from leaving. It was a pretty fast ride to our stop, we got off and proceeded to our apartment on foot, it was time for tea.
The Pantheon, Temple to all the gods - 125 AD
Since we are talking about Hadrian, it is time to look at the pinnacle of Roman dome architecture. The first temple built on the site was put up by Marcus Agrippa in 27-25 BC. It was destroyed by the great fire in 80 AD, Domitian built another temple which was stuck by lightening and burned down. Hadrian recognized the effort by Agrippa; thus, the inscription reads: ‘Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, thrice consul, made this.’
Once again, the building combines traditional architecture with innovative design. The temple porch is classical with columns in light grey granite with very fine Corinthian capitols in Greek pentelic marble, there is a single staircase, frontal facade and a high podium. The dome was hidden on approach and the porch was once clad in marble.
The rotunda is concrete construction faced with brick, it was coated in white stucco to mimic marble. The exterior is rather displeasing, the gable of the portico is too steep, the portico is awkwardly associated with the round building, they were trying to marry two incompatible geometric shapes and used a large block of concrete to tie them together. The bronze doors are ancient but not likely original.
The interior of the temple is extraordinary, the internal diameter of 142 feet is the same as the height from the floor to the circular oculus in the roof, the dome is a perfect hemisphere. The oculus which allows light, air, rain, birds etc. to enter, is ~ 30 feet in diameter.
There are 7 alcoves, they would have had niches for statuary on the back wall. The beautiful marble floor is supposedly original, 140 coffers in the dome would have been gilded. The columns and pilasters are original.
The Pantheon demonstrates increasing sophistication in the use of concrete, walls decrease in thickness from bottom to top, heavy stone is used at the bottom and a lighter porous pumice at the top. The arches are self-stabilizing and the dome has compressive rings to stabilize it as well.
The coffers in the dome get smaller as the height increases, this makes the dome look larger than it really is, this also reduced the weight.
The Pantheon is an incredible building, especially if you focus on the dome and the oculus. It functions as a church right now so one has to block out all of that decoration to gain an appreciation for what the Romans achieved architecturally.
No comments:
Post a Comment