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Colosseum

Location :

in the center of the city of Rome , Italy .

Important of choose :

The Colosseum was the emperor’s gift to the Romans. Without doubts it was not only an amphitheatre. It became a symbol of power and majesty of the emperor, Rome and Roman society.

Historical Background

  Around A.D. 75 an order was given by the emperor Vespasian to begin building what would later become a symbol of not only Roman strength and power but also violence.  Although the architect remains anonymous, during these times this building proved to be a spectacle of engineering.  Its oval-shape with outer walls reaching 157 feet high held some of the most gruesome entertainment that became favored by all.

Architecture :

The Colosseum was built of blocks of travertine stone extracted from the quarries of Albulae near Tivoli and brought to Rome by a wide road specially constructed for the purpose. The amphitheater forms an oval 527 meters ( 1,729) in circumference with diameters of 189 and 156 meters (615 and 510 ft). The height of the four-storied wall is 48 meters (157 ft).

The Colosseum contained 45,000 sitting places and 5,000 standing places. The broad paved circular piazza that surrounded the amphitheater allowed easy access to every part of the façade. There were 80 entrance arches .

Important of the building :

The most popular entertainment provided within these walls were the gladiator, or swordsmen, fights.  Beginning around 264 B.C., at the funeral of Junius Brutus, slaves were forced to fight to the death.  Growing in popularity, it began to include prisoners of war, criminals, and slaves as the normal gladiators that were seen in the arena.  Fighting with different weapons or riding on chariots, gladiators battled until one was dominant over another. Fights that were bloody and showed much excitement were supported and praised by onlookers

Value :

Founded, according to legend, by Romulus and Remus in 753 BC, Rome was first the centre of the Roman Republic, then of the Roman Empire, and it became the capital of the Christian world in the 4th century. The World Heritage site, extended in 1990 to the walls of Urban VIII, includes some of the major monuments of antiquity such as the Forums, the Mausoleum of Augustus, the Mausoleum of Hadrian, the Pantheon, Trajan's Column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius, as well as the religious and public buildings of papal Rome.

The Invention of Concrete and the Vaulted Arch

Roman architecture and buildings, such as the Colosseum, were strongly influenced by two of their great inventions concrete and vaulted arches. Concrete was a a recent invention when the Colosseum was built and the Romans were still learning how to use it. As concrete was so new they did not know how strong it was or long it would last. The Romans cautiously combined concrete together with stone. The Colosseum had four tiers. The ceilings of the passages and corridors which circled the arena on each tier consisted of vaulted arches made of concrete but the supports they rested on were made of strong, heavy limestone. The Vaulted arches made the  ceilings much stronger than a flat ceiling would have been. Vaulted arches made of concrete added strength to the building without adding excessive weight. Without concrete and vaulted arches, the Colosseum could not have been built.

Materials :

Travertine limestone (The outer wall is estimated to have required over 100,000 cubic meters of travertine)

Tuff or Tufo - a porous stone used in the preparation of cement

Cement (Cement was used for the vaulted arches)

Tiles (Tiles were used for the floors and the walls)

Bricks (Bricks were used in walls)

Marble (Used for the seating, statues and ornaments, drinking fountains and as a covering to the outside walls)

Lead and terra-cotta pipes for the water and sewer sytem

Minstry

Restoration History :

The Flavian Amphitheatre was damaged several times by fire and earthquakes but was continually restored until the end of the 5th century. Gladiatorial combats were outlawed by the Christian emperor Honorius in 407 AD and fights with wild beasts were banned in 523. After this, the arena went out of use and fell into disrepair. In the centuries afterwards Romans freely helped themselves to the arena’s stones in order to build their houses until the 18th century, when Pope Benedict XIV (1740-58) declared the Colosseum sanctified by the blood of early Christian martyrs.

Facelift :

After some 1,500 years of neglect everybody agrees that the facelift of Rome’s ultimate architectural icon is urgently required. There are alarming reports that the Flavian amphitheatre is leaning (similar to Pisa’s tower). The south side of the Colosseum is now around 40cm (16 inches) lower than on the north. Diego Della Valle emphasises the urgency of intervention too when he said the Colosseum had to be taken care of because “it does not only belong to Italians but to every citizen of the world.”

Now

The Colosseum has emerged more imposing than ever after its most extensive restoration, a €25million (£15million) clean up to remove decades of grime caused by traffic pollution in Rome.

Footing the bill is shoe-and-luxury goods maker Tod's. In an act of modern-day cultural patronage, company founder Diego Della Valle responded to a government call to the private sector to help care for Italy's art and archaeological treasures.

The Colosseum's new look was unveiled on Friday and during the ceremony Italy's culture minister, Dario Franceschini, announced that a further €18 million (£15million) has been found to replace the arena's floor, by the end of 2018.