History of Rome in Seven Structures

Hello subscribers.

I’ve decided to come back to Substack. In an effort to keep things more consistent, I’m going to post every other day for at least a month. I’m telling you so that I actually do it.

The next fifteen (likely more) posts will feature a history of some of the most interesting cities in the world through seven structures. The design of a city gives form to our most exalted values, painting a vivid story of how people live, worship, work, mourn, and move. By looking at constructions that typify the character of a specific city, we can unlock the ghost in the machinery that makes a certain place feel a certain way.

Let’s start with Rome. It’s a city I’ve visited and studied a fair amount. In it live the three stages of antiquity, the downfall of civilization, the seat of religion, the height of art, the very spirit of empire.

CLOACA MAXIMA

This is actually an ancient sewage system constructed by one of the seven kings of Rome. This era of Rome’s history predates the growing republic and the massive empire that followed. According to tradition, Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, built the Cloaca Maxima around 600 BC to drain the low-lying swamps where Rome resides. Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and final king of Rome, filled this drained area with tens of thousands of cubic meters of soil, opening the city to expansion that ushered in the Roman Republic and a new era of history.

PANTHEON

The dome structure was perfected in the Pantheon. It was the largest dome in the world for over 1300 years since its construction around 126 AD. The Emperor Hadrian who commissioned it is perhaps the most prolific builder of the Roman Empire. It is called the Pantheon because it was dedicated to all gods (pan = all; theos = god). The giant pillars at the entrance are uniquely made from one piece of granite, shipped from Egypt. Here is an empire in full force, co-opting some Greek architecture and some Egyptian materials over a land that supposedly contains all peoples and accepts all religious views. Ironically, the building became a Christian church in 609 AD. This comes after the fall of the Western Roman Empire around 476 AD and marks an era where Rome’s political influence had nearly vanished, but its marks remained all around Europe and became connected to a new spiritual dominion.

TORRE DEI CONTI

Constructed in 1238, this tower symbolizes the provincialism and fortification of medieval Rome. It utilizes a form called Romanesque architecture, recalling Ancient Roman motifs while eventually evolving into a more adorned Gothic movement. This tower was commissioned by the brother of Pope Innocent III, who famously claimed supremacy over all European kings and vastly expanded the power of the Catholic Church. For hundreds of years after the fall of Rome, it was ransacked by Gothic tribes, and the city didn’t have money to rebuild. This is also why there is almost no Gothic architecture in Rome. Most of Rome’s influence was abroad during the 1000 years between the fall of the Empire and the Renaissance. The remaining buildings from this time are stark and rare.

THE BASILICA OF SAINT PETER

One cannot talk about the structures of Rome without mentioning St. Peter’s Basilica. It was built from 1506—1626 and for three hundred years remained a part of Rome until the Catholic Church declared the Vatican City an entirely new nation and the capital of spiritual power on Earth. The Basilica is a fixture of Renaissance architecture over the apparent burial site of Saint Peter. From 756 to 1870, Rome was under the control of the Papal States, a strip of land connecting both sides of the peninsula. The rest of Italy was similarly broken up into regional rule in this thousand year stretch.

ALTAR OF THE FATHERLAND

In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II, unified Italy for the first time since the Roman Empire. Victor Emmanuel II leveraged his isolated position as king of Sardinia by aiding the French, Ottoman, and British forces in the Crimean War against Russia. When other revolutionaries conquered the south of Italy and stood poised to attack French-occupied Rome, Emmanuel II marched in and peacefully annexed it to the rest of the peninsula. Upon entering Rome, its rulers excised the only remaining power they still wielded over Emmanuel II and excommunicated him from the Catholic Church. This altar was commemorated in 1935, and it bears the tomb of the unknown soldier after Italy’s involvement in WWI. Also inside is an eternal flame, which recalls the sacred flame that an order of religious virgins kept alight since the apparent founding of Rome by refugees from the fall of Troy.

PALAZZO DELLA CIVILTA ITALIANA

Shortly after Italian unification, Rome clung too closely to former glory. This building was designed in 1938 and completed in 1940, utilizing the short-lived fascist architectural style while celebrating Rome’s origins. One can see the Colosseum in its ordered arches. The nine columns of arches are said to represent each letter of Benito Mussolini’s last name, while the six rows of arches supposedly represent each letter of the dictator’s first name. The building itself and the district where it was built were intended to celebrate twenty years of Italian fascism and the 1942 World Fair, which never happened for obvious reasons. Despite its checkered intentions, the building remains stylish and now houses the international headquarters of Fendi.

FUKSAS CLOUD CONVENTION CENTER

The mechanistic glass and steel exterior of this building reveals a white, flowing, cloudlike auditorium within. The image suggests the rigid overengineered tech-centered future we face as we dream and look towards utopia. One can also not say the word “cloud” without thinking of the amorphous databank of information where our private and public affairs lie. The Fuksas Cloud was completed in 2012 in the same controversial part of town where Mussolini planned and designed his 1942 World Fair. The building hosts events, art exhibitions, and conferences. Rome has become a truly international city, not by strength of force, but by its immense cultural and artistic impact.