One of the ancient creations of the brilliant architects of Ancient Rome, the Colosseum, will be tried to return to its former grandeur, and with a modern twist. The Italian Ministry of Culture has announced that the engineering company Milan Ingegneria may already begin restoration work. The main highlight of the transformations will be a wooden mobile platform covering the entire main floor of the arena, which will allow visitors to walk along it, as gladiators once did, and they plan to organize mass events there.
Since the 80s of the new era, the Roman Colosseum has been a venue for spectacular events - from bloody battles of gladiators and animal persecution, and ending with demonstrative naval battles (naumachia), which attracted more than 50 thousand people. Despite the fact that many years have passed since then, the dilapidated arena attracts millions of tourists who want to see the impressive object with their own eyes.
According to the authors of Novate.ru, interest in visiting the Colosseum increased in the 19th century, when archaeologists discovered a network of underground tunnels and chambers under the wooden flooring of the arena, where gladiators and animals were once kept before the start of bloody battles. It was then that the decision was made to dismantle the platform so that tourists and everyone who wants to can freely view the premises hidden from the public. Since then, part of the underground tunnels could be seen simply by standing in the surviving stands.
A bit of history: The construction of the Colosseum or the Flavian amphitheater began in 72 AD. It took only 8 years to build such a grandiose facility using a minimum of construction equipment. Researchers argue that the main driving force behind the construction of the open-air theater was the slaves brought after the military campaigns to Judea (it is assumed that there were about 100 thousand people), while local craftsmen, architects, engineers and artists were involved in calculations and management. In such a short period of time, a whole army of builders and slaves managed to build one of the most impressive structures in the world. According to calculations, the length of the outer ellipse of the amphitheater is 524 m, while the arena is 85.75 m long and 53.62 m wide. The height of the walls ranges from 48 to 50 m.
As the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini promises, the situation should change by 2023, since a decision was made to restore the wooden platform. The engineering company Milan Ingegneria has undertaken a special restoration using innovative technologies. According to preliminary calculations, the company will need about $ 22 million for the reconstruction and renovation of the arena.
“This will be a great technological intervention, which will allow visitors to see not only the underground premises, but also appreciate the entire beauty of the Colosseum, standing in the center of the arena,” says the Italian Minister of Culture.
The developers promise that the restoration of a unique architectural monument will not become an exact copy of the structure of an old building, the arena will be created with the introduction of innovative technologies. After the completion of the work, a wooden platform with an area of 3 thousand square meters.m will allow guests and residents of Rome to see the Colosseum the way its ancestors saw it. At the same time, the wooden platform will consist of high-tech mobile panels, which will allow you to look into the underground part of the structure. Any manipulations with the arena can be carried out with a simple push of a button, because it is planned to introduce swivel and retractable mechanisms into the floor structure, allowing both to create a reliable platform and to remove it.
To ensure the durability and safety of the platform, we decided to use super-strong water-repellent akoya wood. For the safety of the new implementation and the architectural monument itself, the arena will be installed without fixing on the existing walls, which are almost 2 thousand years old. The project stipulates that the new structure at the physical and chemical levels is completely isolated from the remaining masonry in order to prevent the influence of horizontal forces, be it earthquakes or the dynamic impact of people walking around the arena.
As conceived by the developers, the wooden platform will consist of thousands of movable slats (slats) that can also rotate to provide ventilation and light penetration into underground rooms, as well as provide an unobstructed view of tunnels and rooms.
When closed, you can get an arena for concerts and theatrical performances. It is also planned to create an underground museum for visitors, which can be accessed by elevators.
To ensure the maximum safety of underground structures, 24 mechanical ventilation units will be introduced, distributed throughout the arena, temperature and humidity control sensors of the underground premises, which will make it possible to completely replace the air in just 30 minutes.
Remarkable: The Milan Ingegneria project provides for hidden hatches through which the rainwater collected on the platform will enter the water intake and treatment plant. From there, it will go to the household premises and toilets, of which there are many, because the Colosseum is the most visited monument in Rome. In 2019, for example, more than 7.6 million tourists visited this unique attraction.
Giant Roman amphitheaters were used not only for bloody shows, since ancient times they have been a venue for sports competitions. And the most incomprehensible thing is that to this day, engineers and architects have not found an alternative to the structures designed several millennia ago. Modern sports arenas are being built in the image and likeness of ancient objects, which is confirmed by these impressive stadiums.