TOMBS ON VIA LATINA

TOMBE DELLA VIA LATINA
Via dell'Arco di Travertino 151

These tombs are located on the ancient VIA LATINA already used in prehistoric times, later used by the Etruscans and finally paved on the fourth or third century BC

It branched off from the Appian Way and headed to Casilinum (now Capua), where it joined again with the Appian Way
It remained in use until the fourteenth century

Excavations of Lorenzo Fortunati in the years 1857/58

After the entrance to the right there is the BARBERINI SEPULCHRE
It spreads over three floors. Here was found the “Barberini Sarcophagus” now in the Vatican Museums

Further on, on the right TOMB OF THE VALERII
About 160 AD. The outside is a nineteenth-century makeover. The name is imaginative
The walls were covered with marble slabs of which traces remain and there is in the ceiling a refined decoration in white stucco with “Scene of the funerary world, Dionysian subjects and representations from the marine repertoire “

Still further on, on the left TOMB OF THE PANCRATII
About 140. At the level of the ground “Black and white mosaic with fishes”
Downstairs there is a vestibule where one sarcophagus remains mentioning the corporation of the Pancratii
In the burial chamber patterned floor and ceiling painted and plastered with various mythological themes that include also the top of the walls. At the center of the vault “Male figure transported by the eagle of Jupiter”

Nearby there are also the BACCELLI TOMB and the TOMB OF THE CALPURNII
On a villa which maybe belonged to the Anici family, was built at the behest of Pope Leo the Great (440/461) the CHURCH OF St. STEPHAN still in use in the thirteenth century, with three naves, apse and baptistery

AIRONE MOVIE THEATER

CINEMA AIRONE

Via Lidia 44 - Via Latina

1953/56 Adalberto Libera (1903/63) for ENPAIA (Ente Nazionale per la Previdenza dei Lavoratori Agricoli e Forestali - National Agency for the Welfare of Agricultural and Forestry Workers)

Spectacular architecture of the great Tyrolean architect among the greatest exponents of Rationalism

"I felt the interior of the hall as the interior of a mandolin, but I was not helped by a mathematical formula, so I went ahead for the best with elliptical sections connected by empirical relationships" (Adalberto Libera)

It was decorated with frescoes by the brilliant abstract artist Giuseppe Capogrossi (1900/72) unfortunately partially destroyed and partially degraded by those who ran the movie theater over the years

The cinema had 800 seats and was constructed about 5 m (16.4 feet) below street level, in a housing complex designed and executed in the same years 1953/56 by Leo Calini (1903/85) and Eugenio Montuori (1907/82)

During the years it was demeaned and brutally reconverted as a disco (Charleston, Stellarium) and as a pub (Makumba) before being left abandoned until 2011, when the Municipality of Rome promoted its restoration and its recovery as a cultural center

One hopes that this gem of the art of Rome may shine again one day

"Adalberto Libera, in developing the project, declined the theme dear to him of the collective room. (...) From the stage frame, with the shape of a television of the 1950s, departed rays of green and white silk accompanying the development of the ceiling and imitating, in the intentions of the architect, the rising of the sun. To embellish the interior of the building, Libera wanted a mural created by Giuseppe Capogrossi, illustrious exponent of Italian abstract art. Spectators, entering the cinema, used to admire the beautiful color flow of the Roman painter stretched in dynamic routes on the ceiling of the large entrance stairway" (Associazione di Promozione Sociale Cineairone - Association of Social Promotion Cineairone - www.cineairone.com)

"The basic idea was to create a unified hall, eliminating the gallery. (...) To build a space functionally and psychologically fit for the purpose, Libera had chosen a shape determined on one hand by the curves of visibility, on the other hand by the desire to define a void that would have its completed form, almost with an absolute value, possibly translated into a mathematical equation. The result (...) was an ovoid with the rear deeply lowered and a considerable expansion at the proscenium. A continuous space extremely enveloping because it has no vertical walls, with the character of an animal cavity, almost the pulsating interior of an organ" (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

HYPOGEUM OF VIA DINO COMPAGNI

IPOGEO DI VIA DINO COMPAGNI

Via Dino Compagni/corner with Via Latina

Maybe four distinct phases, identified in a period between 320 and 360 AD, when it was very common to have in the same family some members converted to Christianity and others still devoted to pagan worship

Discovered by chance in 1955, it is one of the most beautiful hypogeums in the world for the richness of its paintings, an authentic art gallery of the fourth century

Maybe the tombs belong to two related families or two branches of the same family

The entrance stairway leads to a CORRIDOR and TWO CUBICLES maybe built in the first phase and decorated with "Scenes from the Old and New Testament": the fall of Adam and Eve, Noah's drunkness and Isaac's dinner

At the end of this corridor, through steps, there is an access to TWO CUBICLES maybe built in the second phase:

The first has columns in the corners and cross vaulting with "Stories of the Old Testament": a probable representation of the Flood, Samson strangling the lion, the dream of Joseph, Moses saved from the waters, Adam and Eve with Cain and Abel, the passing of the Red Sea

In a third phase ANOTHER CORRIDOR was built, starting from the middle of the first one, leading to a VESTIBULE and two cubicles:

The so called CUBICLE OF THE TELLUS where are represented "Pagan scenes": Gorgon, Tellus and zoomorphic elements

The so called CUBICLE OF SAMSON oval in shape, where there are also original "Christian scenes" such as Samson slaying the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, Barlaam stopped by the angel, Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

From another vestibule TWO CORRIDORS begin, one with cells and the other with stairs leading to a well

In the fourth phase of construction an ambulatory was built toward west leading to a VESTIBULE WITH A HEXAGONAL PLAN, corner columns and vault with a central medallion on which a "Bust of a man with rotulus" is represented. In the lunette of the arcosolium (arched niche) on the right there is an exceptionally unusual painting: "Anatomy lesson with a corpse"

From this vestibule there is access to two rooms and two arcosolia

ANOTHER VESTIBULE enclosed by a fence, leads to three cubicles, where there are paintings with "Pagan scenes": Labors of Hercules, Admetus and Alcestis, Ceres, as well as paintings with "Christian scenes": soldiers gambling for the robe of Jesus with a curious device for drawing lots, Job and his wife, the giving of the Law, three Jews in the furnace, the stories of Moses, Noah's ark

While it is not possible to attribute the hypogeum to a specific household, not having epigraphic sources, it can be assumed that this funerary complex, built first by Christian people, was also used by pagan people, perhaps by the time of the revival of paganism under Julian the Apostate (361/363)

HYPOGEUM OF TREBIUS JUSTUS

IPOGEO DI TREBIO GIUSTO

Via Giuseppe Mantellini 13/ corner with Via Latina

Discovered in 1911 and reopened in 1976

It dates to the early fourth century AD

It consists of an access corridor, a vestibule and a square burial chamber covered with a vault. There are niches in the side walls and on the main wall there is an arcosolium (arched niche). The hypogeum is entirely dug in the pozzolana rock and inside the walls are lined with bricks

Important paintings are visible, still well preserved, in which are there are portraits of the owner of the tomb, Trebius Justus, with his wife, his son who was buried here, and other characters

MAIN WALL

In the upper part "Young man seated maybe his son, Justus Trebius Asellus (donkey), who died at 21 years, 7 months and 25 days with his mother at his side, maybe Honoratia Severina and a man, maybe Trebius Justus himself, who tend a cloth on which there are various items"

In the arcosolium "Trebius Justus Asellus surrounded by objects for writing", a typical set for students

"Objects functional to the exaltation of his status as are arranged in the air, without any apparent realistic relationship, but clearly linked to a symbolic concept. It was considered more important, in fact, the most immediate evidence of the rank of the character, expressed through attributes, that a faithful representation of the reality of the attributes themselves" (Gian Luca Grassigli - TMG)

Under the arcosolium "Trebius Justus among some farmers who have brought baskets full of products of the land"

SIDE WALLS

"Construction of a building": on the left a scene of a construction site, on the right Trebius Justus talking to another character, magister Generosus, probably a mason

ON THE SIDES OF THE ENTRANCE

"Transportation of building materials and agricultural products"

VAULT OF THE BURIAL CHAMBER

"Shepherd between two sheep"

From these paintings, it is possible to deduce that Trebius Justus was a builder as well as a rich landowner

A current interpretation relates the characteristics of the tomb to a heretical Christian sect, and attempts to explain everything in a symbolic way. The effigy of a woman with monstrous beard seems to support this theory seems confirming the possibility of some Gnostic rituals

It is more likely however that any symbolic intent is to be excluded, and that representations of everyday life, would not have another meaning than the purely figurative one

Even the image of the Good Shepherd on the vault is explained in this light, as a hint to religious people who, although Christian, had certainly not passed the first level of initiation