They discover the remains of a Roman Empire residence in the basement of a building in Rome

From the outside it is a modern building in the center of Rome. However, in his basement, he hides a real treasure: the remains of a residence from the Roman period with sumptuous mosaics.

The mosaics dating from the beginning of the present era were discovered during archaeological excavations by the transformation into a residential building of the former headquarters of the Banque Nationale du Travail, acquired by the French bank BNP Paribas. The idea was to make a parking lot in the basement.

The excavations started in 2014 and ended in 2018, a long and technologically complex job.

In the lobby of the building, built in the 1950s and located at the foot of Mount Aventine, one of the seven hills of the Italian capital, a neighbor laden with bags from the market holds the door.

After descending a staircase, you will find a regular gray metal door that leads to one of the underground wonders of Rome.

“We are inside a kind of ‘archaeological chest’, an architectural structure which has two functions: to protect the mosaics and to allow the public to access them” where they were discovered, explained to AFP Roberto Narducci, archaeologist from the Rome Cultural Property Department.

In front of the mosaic, with a delicate vine full of small clusters that run on a white background, the archaeologist explains the exceptional character of the place, which opened its doors to the public for the first time this Friday.

“Here we are inside a private building (…) exactly where the creation of eight garages had been planned,” he said with amusement.

The parking lots have disappeared. An agreement was concluded with the property, the BNP Paribas bank, which financed the work, to create a multimedia space which, thanks to a play of lights and a soundtrack with birdsong, offers an archaeological visit to the ” domus ”Roman.

The walls are decorated with brightly colored paintings reminiscent of those of Pompeian villas, and the missing fragments of the mosaics have been miraculously reconstructed.

With this kind of time machine, a jump of more than two thousand years is taken again, when the inhabitants of this sumptuous Roman residence walked on the mosaics.

There is no doubt that the decision not to transfer everything to a museum gave this “archaeological chest” a magical touch.

“We have had the opportunity to study several layers of overlapping mosaics over the centuries, six in all. From a scientific point of view, this happens very rarely, ”says Narducci.

Thanks to the study of the whole area, of more than 2000 m2, the archaeologists were also able to “unearth various treasures dating back to the 8th century BC., in particular the remains of a military construction, perhaps a watchtower ”, the foundations of which are still visible.

And the co-owners of the building, how did they react to such a discovery under their feet?

For Narducci, they are “proud” to live in this place and have agreed with the cultural property authorities to open it to the public with guide limited to the first and third Friday of the month.

“It is true that we are inside a residential building with apartments, but also we are in an archaeological site, whose objects belong to the State, ”summed up the archaeologist.

Source: AFP