Rome opens long-awaited Colosseum subway station, with displays of unearthed artifacts

ROME AP Rome opened two subway stations on Tuesday one deep beneath the Colosseum that mix the modernity of high-tech journey with artifacts from an ancient era Commuters and tourists entering the station beside the iconic amphitheater can view displays of ceramic vases and plates stone wells and suspended buckets as well as the ruins of a cold plunge pool and thermal bath from a first-century dwelling Screens show the excavation process serving both to delight archaeology enthusiasts and justify why it has taken so long to open the station The multibillion-euro Metro C subway line has been in the works for two decades but has been slowed by bureaucratic and funding delays and crucially the archaeological excavations necessary given the underground ruins of imperial Roman and medieval civilizations in its way The challenge was building it under such a large amount of groundwater and at the same time preserving all the archaeological finds that we identified during the excavation and all this while preserving everything that is above explained Marco Cervone construction manager for the consortium building the subway line led by Webuild The total cost of the line s stations three-quarters of which are now operational will reach around billion euros billion and be completed by according to the press office of the city-owned company that has contracted the works Rome was inaugurating another station on Tuesday Porta Metronia located one stop away from the one beside the Colosseum and likewise at a depth of meters around feet It features a nearly -meter -foot military barracks dating to the start of the second century detected at a depth between and meters and feet according to Simona Moretta the scientific director of the excavation Surety that it was a military building is given by the fact that the entrances to the rooms are not facing each other but are offset so that the soldiers could leave the rooms and get in line without colliding in the corridor the archaeologist communicated reporters Soldiers would either have been part of the emperor s guard or stationed there for city guard she added There s also a home with well-preserved frescoes and mosaics A museum within the station will be opened in the future Moretta revealed Digging near the center of Rome means coming in the contact with three millennia of civilizations built atop one another So far the consortium building Line C has exposed more than artifacts according to WeBuild In order to work in the delicate archaeological area the company has employed techniques including freezing the ground to stabilize soil as well as so-called sacrificial diaphragms concrete walls built perpendicular to perimeter walls that are demolished as excavation advances As the subway line continues onward past the Colosseum it will run underneath more of the world s majority of central cultural heritage sites Trajan s Column and the Basilica of Maxentius the largest building in the Roman Forum as well as particular of Rome s prized Renaissance palaces churches and the Vatican The next stop along the line is Piazza Venezia the veritable heart of Rome s center Subway cars will arrive at a depth of meters feet when it opens in Cervone stated Once completed Line C will run a total of kilometers miles of which kilometers miles will be underground and carry up to passengers daily Tourists planning to visit the Colosseum and other sites in Rome s historic center will be able to get around the eternal city s notoriously snarled surface traffic made even worse in modern years by the construction projects themselves Paolo Santalucia contributed to this assessment Source