The engineering required to build underground transport networks is already impressive, but when you chuck in all the historical artefacts buried beneath a city like Rome, the care and precision required to ensure no damage is done makes the whole operation significantly more challenging.
However, it’s not impossible, and after 20 years of construction on the city’s Metro C line, two ‘museum stations’ – which house artefacts from the Roman era – have finally opened in the Italian capital.
The first is Colosseo-Fori Imperialio, which practically sits beneath the Colosseum itself. It features displays of ceramic vases and plates as well as stone wells, suspended buckets and remnants of a thermal bath and plunge pool from a first-century home, plus screens that will detail the excavation process.
One stop further along Metro C and you’ll reach Porto Metronia, which is the second ‘museum station’. Here, visitors will find what is thought to be a military building, likely where emperor’s guards would have been stationed, plus mosaics and frescoes – though passengers will have to wait until next year for the museum to be officially accessible to the public, according to the Guardian.
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When will Rome’s Metro C be complete?
Though these two stations have finally opened, only three-quarters of the Metro C line (the construction of which has cost €7 billion) are operational, and AP News reports that it might not be done until 2035. However, once it’s complete, Metro C will stretch for 29 km and cart 800,000 passengers across Rome each day.
Why has it taken so long? Well, there is 3,000 years of civilisation lying beneath Rome. According to WeBuild, the consortium behind the metro line, 500,000 artefacts have been uncovered so far. The line also runs beneath some of the world’s most important cultural heritage sites: Trajan’s Column and the Basilica of Maxentius.
To ensure damage to the delicate archaeology of the area was limited, parts of the ground were frozen to stabilise the soil, and ‘sacrificial diaphragms’, which are concrete walls built perpendicular to the perimeter walls and later demolished, have been used.
Stay tuned for more updates on this story, and have a look at Time Out’s list of the best attractions in Rome, curated by a local.
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