TEMPLE OF VENUS AND ROME

TEMPIO DI VENERE E ROMA
Piazza del Colosseo

Begun in the year 121 AD for Hadrian (117/138) who, maybe, was the architect
Built on the vestibule of the Domus Aurea, after having leveled the Velia Hill

It seems that Apollodorus of Damascus, architect of Trajan, had criticized the ability of Hadrian as an architect and had been sentenced to death by the offended emperor

Dedicated on April 21, 135 AD
It was completed at the time of Antoninus Pius (138/161)
Restored on the year 307 AD for Maxentius (307/312)

It was the largest temple of ancient Rome and perhaps in the world, together with the Temple of Serapis of similar size:
Platform 100 x 145 m (330 x 476 feet) occupied for about ¾ by the temple

To give an idea of the size it can be said that the Parthenon in Athens is 31 x 70 m (101 x 230 feet) and the Temple of Apollo Didimeo in Miletus is 51 x 110 m (167 x 361 feet)

It was a dipteral decastile temple, with 10 x 22 columns, three rows of columns on both sides and two opposing cellas according to a tradition definitely Greek, on a crepidoma of seven steps

Two porticos with double colonnade with a central small propylaeum on the long sides of the platform
Inside the two cellas there used to be statues of Venus Felix (towards the Colosseum) and Eternal Rome (towards the Forum)

It was opened to the public in November 2010. During the restorations traces of gold that covered the roof shingles were found

The BRONZE COLOSSUS 35.40 m (116 feet) high by Zenodorus, representing Nero (54/68), the largest bronze statue ever made in the world (the Colossus of Rhodes was 32 m high - 105 feet) later transformed by Vespasian (69/79) in the Sun God Helios, formerly placed in the vestibule of the Domus Aurea, was moved at the behest of Hadrian near the Colosseum with the help of 24 elephants

“The temple is placed in alignment with the axis of the Colosseum: it renews, in a different key, the relationship between theater and temple we saw frequently in the Hellenistic period, where, however, to represent the gathered community of the Roman people is now the (…) more prestigious building of the city, its amphitheater: the colossus of Sol Invictus, erected between the two buildings, in front of the façade of the temple, represented the cosmic guarantee of the eternity of the city. It has been said, effectively modernizing, that Hadrian had established a proper national cult” (Francesca de Caprariis and Fausto Zevi)

GOLDEN HOUSE OF NERO

DOMUS AUREA

Via della Domus Aurea

Built for Nero (54/68) after the fire of 64 by Severus and Celer and adorned with paintings by Fabullus

About 260 hectares (about one square mile)

The only remaining pavilion - 300 x 190 m (1,000 feet x 630) - continued to be occupied until a fire destroyed it in 104 AD. It was then inserted in the foundations of the Baths of Trajan, which kept it preserved underground

Until now 150 rooms have been excavated, 30 of which could be visited until the recent closure

It was inserted in 1932 in PARK OF OPPIAN HILL made by Raffaele De Vico (1881/1969)

"Definitive statement of the new style of painting already begun in the Flavian period, the so-called IV style: inspired by the criteria of stage sets, it scans with thin walls and complex architecture open to illusory prospective backgrounds and enriched by a large repertoire of fantastic decorative elements, checkered landscape, textile motifs" (Simona Fortunelli - TMG)

"It addresses the various models and traditions, whose contrast is indeed one of the characteristics of the IV style. In its qualitatively better, or at least richer, expressions everything is held together by an abundance of small and almost redundant various decorative elements, according to a clear sense of horror vacui (fear of emptiness), which gives a decidedly baroque look to the whole" (Gian Luca Grassigli - TMG)

It is divided into two parts:

1) TO THE WEST

It circles around a large courtyard oriented north-south, perhaps Domus Transitoria, the previous residence of Nero:

GARDEN WITH PORCH

NYMPHAEUM with mosaic "Ulysses offers wine to Polyphemus"

HALL OF THE LITTLE HOWLS VAULT probably triclinium (dining room) beautifully decorated with ceiling fresco friezes around a central motif inspired by the Hellenistic painted curtains

On the right ROOM OF THE BLACK VAULT

Under the group of rooms to the south of the grotto, excavations have revealed the presence of REPUBLICAN HOUSES of the second century BC with remains of mosaic floors and paintings of the so-called First Style

2) TO THE EAST

Rooms arranged around a large irregular polygonal recess followed by a sector in a radial pattern around an octagonal hall, certainly added later, and costituting probably the actual Domus Aurea:

ROOM OF THE GOLDEN VAULT

CRYPTOPORTICUS

CTAGONAL ROOM

ROOM OF ACHILLES IN SCIRO with painted lunette "Achilles with women's clothes unmasked by Ulysses"

When a young Roman fell by chance into a slot on the side of the Oppian Hill at the end of the 1400s, he found himself in a strange cave, filled with painted figures. Soon the young Roman artists began to go in to see for themselves

The frescoes then discovered faded later to pale gray stains on the plaster, but the effect of these "grotesque" (from the Italian word "grotto" which means cave) decorations, in fact, was thrilling for the entire Renaissance period

When Pinturicchio, Raphael and Michelangelo went down under the ground in order to study these images, they had a revelation of what was the real ancient world. They, and other artists, like Marco Palmezzano, who worked in Rome in those years, began to spread throughout the rest of Italy such "grotesque" style

Besides the signatures of famous visitors and later engraved on the frescoes, such as those of Giacomo Casanova and the Marquis de Sade, a few inches away from each other, it is possible to read the names of great painters such as Domenico Ghirlandaio, Martin van Heemskerck and Filippino Lippi

ORATORY OF St. FELICITA

Retrieved from one of the service areas that were not involved in the Trajan construction and later were used as dwellings

There are graffiti and paintings almost completely disappeared dating back from the I/II to the V century AD