Visiting on Top of the Ancient city walls in Rome

The “Mura Aureliane”, erected to defend the heart of Rome in ancient times, it was damaged and partly demolished after the proclamation of “Rome” as capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Today they are at the center of an articulated valorization project by the “Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali” and the Ufficio di Scopo “Mura Aureliane”, established last February by order of the Mayor. History and stories chase each other and intertwine along the Aurelian Walls. 

The walkways in the sections of the “Mura Aureliane”, will be open to the public for the first time as part of the Roman Summer 2021 until September 26, with guided tours on Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 12pm.

For the first time, visitors will be able to admire the majesty of the stretch of wall in Via Campania, preserved with two orders of arches dating back, in the original plant, to the time of Emperor Honorius (401-403 AD), then became the boundary wall of the Villa Boncompagni-Ludovisi and the site of artists’ studios. But also the stretch, with a less imposing appearance, in Viale Pretoriano, modified for the interruption of at least 5 meters – realized to level the ancient orography to the heights of the modern city – and for the construction of Villa Gentili, then Dominici, which led to the transformation of the ancient walkway in a promenade with views over the city and the countryside, to which today the restoration of the Capitoline Superintendence has returned the situation existing in the eighteenth century.

The objective is double. On the one hand, a more incisive enhancement and usability of the most important monumental and architectural complex of the city. On the other, to offer to the observers, Romans but not only, the perception of the living link that the Walls represent between the ancient and the modern city, proposing a walk from a privileged observatory on the city and on the Walls themselves, in a new cognitive and popular approach, that looks at the defensive circuit as the protagonist of a story through centuries of history of the city.

Imposing frame of the city, the “Mura Aureliane” bring the “signs” of its development, starting from their construction, commissioned by “Emperor Aurelian” between 271 and 275 to protect the city from possible attacks of barbarian populations from Northern Europe, until our days, through transformations, damage, restoration. The circuit, which originally ran for 18.837 kilometers, today remains for a length of just over twelve. Built incorporating pre-existing monuments that were located along their route, the Walls quickly became one of the symbols of the city, to attract the attention of the Popes, who, since the fifteenth century, have left the coats of arms of their family on the curtain, “signing” so every intervention made.

If you want to have more information about this amazing experience, write us at info@romeanditaly.it

written by #stefanosghinolfi