PRIVATE TOURS IN ROME - IMPERIAL FORUM TOUR - TOURS OF ROME - COLOSSEUM TOUR |
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IMPERIAL FORUM TOUR
The Roman Forum by R. G. (4/6) |
Throughout the Middle Ages, the impoverished people of the city systematically plundered the site for building materials. By this time, the city was controlled by the papacy, with the ruling popes taking power as kings of Rome and surrounding provinces in around the 7th Century. This heralded the period of the Church Triumphant in which pre-Christian buildings had to be converted to a Christian use in order to survive. In the forum the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina, the Temple of Romulus and the Curia were all converted into Christian churches. The remaining structures continued to be gradually stripped of their precious marbles to be burnt as limestone for the construction of dwellings, fortresses and churches throughout the city. It was during the Renaissance, however, that the forum succumbed to the worst of the pillaging. In 1506, the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica began and in an effort to reflect Rome's glory through the advent of this mighty construction, the popes sent artists to the site of the forum site in droves, with the commission of studying, documenting and learning form the large bulk of ruins that still remained. Once the work was done, however, buildings were pulled down and used as material for the St. Peter's project. The forum became a quarry and the valley floor augmented, burying many dilapidated structures.
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/ I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I first approached and entered the eternal city. After a sleepless night I trod with lofty step the ruins of the forum; each memorable spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke or Caesar fell was at once present to my eye. This ancient picture so artfully introduced and so exquisitely finished must have been hugely interesting to an inhabitant of Rome. (Edward Gibbon, 1788) / |
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