Antiquarium comunale del Celio

epic cool

A stone's throw from the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine, on the opposite side of the excavations on the Palatine Hill, is the old Municipal Antiquarium. Abandoned since 1939. A short distance away, the complex consisting of the Casino Salvi, the building of the former gymnasium of the Opera Nazionale Balilla and the external areas of the former Botanical Garden. In short, the setting up of the Children's Archaeological Park, complete with the external arrangement of the numerous archaeological materials, coming from the park of the old Antiquarium. The works started in 2000, but not yet completed. So those spaces remain closed to the public. Tourists queuing to enter the Palatine excavations from the Farnese entrance, along Via di San Gregorio, moving their gaze from the Colosseum to the Arch of Constantine, meet another "ruin" on the opposite side of the road, at the top. But it is not an ancient monument. It is the Municipal Celio Antiquarium, designed by the Municipal Archaeological Commission to house the findings that would have involved the implementation of the 1883 PRG. Also in consideration of the saturation of the existing museum spaces and warehouses. The building, designed by the architect Sneider following the suggestions of Lanciani who would take care of the layout, was only partially built and inaugurated in May 1894. The desired Urban Museum was thus transformed into a more modest "Archaeological Warehouse" , initially equipped with six rooms. But not without its relevance. Moreover, accentuated by the use of an innovative exhibition model for the time, based on chronological, topographical and functional criteria. The rearrangement of 1929, and at the same time the construction of via dei Trionfi, determined on the one hand the exhibition layout, on the other the topographical centrality. A few months after the works for the construction of the underground tunnel in the section passing under the Antiquarium, which had caused some subsidence, the structure was closed and some rooms were subsequently demolished. Since then, nothing more. The archaeological materials transferred over the years. So that space has been unused for sixty years. Almost in immediate contact with the falling remains of that structure, suffocated by weed vegetation and some ailanthus trees, there is a metal fence. In several places there are signs indicating the danger of collapses. Around, inside the park that surrounds the abandoned structure, time has not stopped. Use continues. Among turkey oak trees and ancient tuff blocks, since 1990, that space, known only more recently as "In the shadow of the Colosseum", "is the most famous review of the Roman summer". As the Roma Capitale website advertises, “more than 700 shows for almost 5 million visitors”. Once the structures of the summer event are dismantled, the space becomes the location of Atreju for a few days. The right-wing youth festival, since 1997. Then, nothing. Until the following year. On the opposite side of via del Parco del Celio, with respect to the entrance to the old Antiquarium, there is the Casino Salvi, built in 1835 on a part of the substructures of the temple of the Divo Claudio, the building of the former Palestra of the National Balilla Opera and the external areas of the former Botanical Garden. In the garden in front of the Casino you can see from the outside of the fence, in addition to the reconstruction of the sepulcher discovered in Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice, in Testaccio, many architectural materials and numerous inscriptions, mostly coming from the Park of the old Antiquarium, already placed in the middle of the the eighties. But still closed to visitors. As well as the buildings. Yet in 1995 the then mayor Rutelli declared that in 2000, taking advantage of the funds for the Jubilee, "the placing of the Antiquarium in the Casina del Salvi" would be completed. In reality, restorations and adaptations to the museum function have begun in those spaces. But not completed. In 2003 the complex was identified as the seat of an Archaeological Park for children being set up and entrusted to the care of Zétema Progetto.

Fenced, under video surveillance but completely abandoned, unfortunately you cannot enter

it looks good but is it open? I always see him in a state of abandonment