Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere - Exploring Rome's Underground on Your Own

The Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere shows off its Roman columns - both as part of the church, and free-standing.

Always intrigued by the Roman columns incorporated into this church's walls, we finally paid a visit. The Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere - located on the broad, busy street between Bocca della Verità and Teatro di Marcello (in tourist landmark terms), one short block from the Lungotevere -  in fact is built over not one, but three ancient Roman temples. There's a nice model inside the church.

More columns, viewed from the south.

Model of the three Roman temples (by Igor)

And, one can explore below the church - for 2 or 3 Euros. The exploration immediately takes you into catacombs and bones.  How old?  Well, they did have green stuff growing on them.

The basilica can be overshadowed by the powerful Teatro di
Marcello, but it's there, down the street to the left.

The three temples are the temple to Janus (the northern one), build in 260 BC; the temple to Juno (middle), built in the 2nd century BC; and the third, the Temple of Spes or hope (southern), built during the First Punic war (264-41 BC).    A diagram overlaying the current structure is informative.

Giacomo della Porta's entrance, incorporating Roman columns.

This basilica is another fine example of the layers of Rome.  In addition to the BC temples, the basilica itself dates to at least the 1100s, and likely to the 6th century, with its interior decorated mostly in the 19th century.  Some frescoes are from the 15th century, and the facade is by Giacomo della Porta (1599).

One reason we can see so clearly the structure of the Roman temples is that Mussolini cleared away the surrounding buildings in driving through his wide road to the sea.  An engraving shows the cluster of buildings abutting and around the church before the Fascists cleared the landscape (and almost this church as well).

Basilica di San Nicola in Carcere, as it looked in the 18th century (Giuseppe Vasi engraving),
before Mussolini demolished the adjacent buildings, and the neighborhood.

You might need the flashlight app on your iPhone.

The Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere is an example of DIY Rome tourism, with no lines, no crowds, right in the center of Rome. English pamphlets are also available there.
via del Teatro di Marcello, 46;

Dianne
Here's another link with more explanatory material on the basilica.

Interior Roman column with 10th century
 Christian markings.

Colle Oppio: In the Shadow of the Coliseum

So you've "done" the Coliseum.  It's not yet lunchtime [1-3 in Rome outside the tourist areas], you've given the fenced-in Arch of Constantine its due, and you're tired of being surrounded by tourists and badgered by folks wanting to sell you stuff. Where do you go?  What's next?

You wouldn't know it, but you're just due passi--literally two steps, but generally meaning "nearby"--from Colle Oppio [Oppio Hill], a fascinating, compact, Roman park, filled with attractions from the historic to the funky.  You can get onto, or into, the Colle Oppio through the gate, and then the path, that runs roughly north from the Coliseum, paralleling via Labicana. This is one of Rome's famous seven hills, and some say one of the most inspiring in Rome, with the Coliseum as its backdrop.

One of the first things you see, on your left, is a statue to Alfredo Oriani [1852-1909].  On the side it says A Roma Madre Ravenna.  It's a creation of the Fascist era--XIII, the 13th year of the Fascist regime, or 1935.  A novelist, poet, and social critic, Oriani's work received little attention until the end of the Great War, when it was discovered by the Fascist regime and, with Mussolini as editor, republished in 30 volumes.  Oddly, Oriani was also appreciated by leftist and anti-Fascist Antonio Gramsci, who wrote about him in his prison notebooks.  When we saw the statue, it had been lightly defaced with a right-wing symbol.







Shortly after the statue, turn up to the left.  Ahead is a large pool/fountain--another, somewhat earlier Fascist-era monument.














Perhaps its outstanding feature is the amphorae that decorate it--symbols of ancient Rome, when clay vessels of this kind were used to transport oil and other commodities.  The smaller fountains at the sides of the larger ones are of interest as well.  Above each of them is the letter "A" [for Anno, year] and the number VI [the sixth year of Fascism, or 1928].









Beyond the fountain, on a wall to the right, is some intriguing and, we assume, relatively permanent graffiti: Omnia Vincit Amore [sounds to us, who have never studied Latin, like Love Conquers All/Colle Oppio, and in the center a symbol we haven't seen before.  And just ahead, the remains of a substantial and once-elegant complex of ancient Roman baths.  These are what remains of the magnificent, 10,000 square meter Baths of Trajan (Emperor 98-117 AD), designed by the brilliant architect Apollodorus of Damascusa in 109 AD above Nero's famous - or infamous - Golden House (closed/open/closed - we think now truly closed - the conservationists can't seem to prevent its collapse.  Luckily we saw it in its brief open period a few years ago). [See Marco's update in the first comment below - there may be hope here.]  There's another piece to your left and back--we'll get there in a moment.






This park has another aspect, one that you may--or may not--appreciate.  It's a gathering and resting place for black immigrants, some of them the itinerant merchants who are ubiquitous in Rome's tourist areas, others, perhaps, unemployed or underemployed.  When we visited in May, the field next to the baths was dotted with sleeping young men.





As you move more or less back toward the fountain, and somewhat to the right, you'll find a second set of
ancient bath ruins.  These are more of the Baths of Trajan.  When we last were there, the city had put up some informative placards near the various ruin sites.  Since the baths covered 10,000 square meters and had gyms, saunas, hot and cold rooms, etc., you will find ruins dotting Colle Oppio, which has been called an archaeologist's dream.  No crowds here.

Next to this piece of the baths is another treasure, from the 1930s: a stone fountain in the modernist style, once elegant but now broken and defaced.  The marble bowl is beautiful, nonetheless.  And the fasces on the side of the fountain are remarkably well preserved.












Two more sights to see.  One is a modest, 2-story building of unknown origins--it could be hundreds of years old, or only a century--fenced in and circled by bushes and trees.  As the sign says, it's the property of the Comune di Roma--the city government--and houses the Centro Anziani "Colle Oppio": a social center for the neighborhood's population of older, retired people--of which Italy has plenty.




Our last stop is a small athletic field, in sight of the Coliseum, where we began our journey.  On our visit it wasn't being used for soccer or any other sport, but rather as a meeting place for the the area's itinerant merchants.  They often carry their wares in blue plastic bags.  On this day, these merchants also hoped to sell umbrellas.  A broader view of the field is at the end of this post.

Bill  

Rome's Walls

We're living in San Paolo, a neighborhood that didn't exist until the 1920s. Even so, the wall-building systems used in the area demonstrate remarkable skill and complexity. Here's one example. The wall at right was once stuccoed, but with the stucco in decay, one can see what's inside: layers of rocks and irregular-sized chunks of tufo, separated by horizontal ribbons of brick, all held together with cement. Such walls are common not only in San Paolo, but throughout the city. Bill