The modern architectural study
of the Colosseum started with Carlo Fontana, who around 1720 made a survey of the
amphitheatre and studied its geometric proportions.
Most of the ground floor of the building was by now almost submerged by earth and debris
accumulated during the centuries, and the arches were used as a deposit of manure.
In 1796 Napoleon I invaded Italy, defeated the papal troops and occupied Ancona and Loreto. Pius VI sued for peace, which was granted at Tolentino on February 19, 1797, but on December 28 of that year, brigadier-general Mathurin-Léonard Duphot, who had gone to Rome with Joseph Bonaparte as part of the French embassy, was killed in a riot and a new pretext was furnished for invasion. General Berthier marched to Rome, entered it unopposed on February 13, 1798, and, proclaiming a Roman Republic, demanded of the Pope the renunciation of his temporal authority. On February 17, 1798 (29 pluviôse An VI) General Berthier ordered the Pope to leave Rome within three days. Upon his refusal he was taken prisoner, and on February 20 he was escorted from the Vatican to Siena, and thence to the Certosa near Florence. Then, by way of Parma, Piacenza, Turin and Grenoble he reached the citadel of Valence, chief town of Drôme in Southern France, where he died six weeks after his arrival, on August 29 1799, having reigned longer than any Pope in historical times.
According to the French project, the Colosseum was to become part of a huge archaeological park including the whole centre of Rome. The monument was in bad state; coach drivers used it as a night shelter, and for a long time it had been a store for a nearby gunpowder factory, for which purpose the first floor had been soaked in manure. These abuses damaged the stone and blocked the corridors. The 1703 earthquake had caused another partial collapse of the building, and the stones were used to build the Porto di Ripetta.
Carlo Fea, Commissioner to the Antiquities, visited the monument and
in 1804 wrote a memorandum suggesting to clean and free the structure, to take away the
manure, to expose the entrance steps and to free the entire first corridor. He pointed out
the importance of consolidating the north east corner, in danger of collapse. One week
after the presentation of the report there was an order from the Quirinale to free the
Colosseum from abuses.
In 1805 the excavations started, carried out by architects Camporesi, Palazzi and Stern,
with the help of Carlo Lucangeli, an
artist of wood modelling, who needed an exact
survey of the monument for his reproduction.
The three architects presented further plans for the consolidation of the Colosseum, proposing the building of a buttress to stop the lateral movement of the outer wall. The idea was criticised in name of the picturesque and romantic qualities of the ruin, which would be spoiled by the monstruous buttress.
A counter proposal was presented to the Pope by a Domenico
Schiavoni, possibly a master mason who had been assisted by an architect. He suggested to
turn the endangered part itself into a buttress by demolishing the upper parts along an
oblique line and by walling in some arches. This intervention - they said - would produce
the appearance of a natural ruin.
The three architects were appalled and strongly objected to at this proposal: "The
shamelessness to present a similar sacrilegious project to the Sovreign was unknown even
at thetime of the Vandals and Goths; although then it was true that plans of this kind
were carried out, at least the devastations were done without asking for the approval and
financing of the government".
They promised that with half of the money required by Schiavone they would secure the Colosseum "As we hope, in its integrity and declaring to to everybody how higly the fine arts are valued today and how dear the precious relics of Roman grandeur are to us. These are objects that all the people of the world come to admire and envy us for. It is of course clear that if that kind of vandalistic operation had been approved, it would have been better to leave the endangered parts in their natural ruined state - instead of taking steps to secure them. In such case, we would at least have been accused of lacking the means, but never of being destroyers and barbarians".
In 1806, after another earthquake that
furtherly damaged the outer ring, the project was finally approved. A wooden shoring had
prevented the collapse of the outer wall, but when the works started it was found that the
conditions of the outer wall were worse than expected, so it was deemed necessary to build
a cross wall to link the buttress, the outer wall and the inner structure of the monument.
Were also excavated the niches around the podium, parts of the podium, the entrance of the
so-called passage of Commodus, part of the drain that runs around the amphitheatre and
part of the canalization system of the ground floor. The porticoes were liberated from the
earth, and so were the third corridor and other rooms.
In 1809 and 1810 the works restarted, also with the help of forced
labour. In 1811 the area at the north of the monument and the northern side of the arena
were partially excavated by Carlo Fea, but in the arena the works had to stop at a depth
of 3 metres because of water infiltrations. From 1811 to 1813 repairs were made, and the
arches were liberated from the walls that had closed them. In 1814 the authority of
the Pope was restablished; the temporary administrations contracted out to Luigi Maria
Valadier, son of the more famous Giuseppe, a survey of the undergrounds, then the arena
was covered again and the stations of the Cross reinstalled.
In the 1820s, under Pius VII, it was deemed necessary to reinforce the remains of the
outer ring. An abutment (buttress) of bricks - a.k.a. the "Stern abutment"
from Raffaele Stern, the architect who planned it - was built to support the arches
of the NW side. Later on, Leo XII had the other, more photographed abutment, built by the architect Giuseppe Valadier. In
1828 Antonio Nibby managed to empty all the surface drains, and in 1830 Luis Joseph Duc
made a the first complete survey of the monument with modern means. From the 1840s on,
more arches were restored and rebuilt on the side of the Celian Hill, by Salvi and other
architects (these arches are easily recognized as they are made of bricks).
Right: the Pius VII abutment
In 1870 Rome became the capital of the new Italian state, but the works to finally free the arena restarted only in 1874. This time half of the arena was at last liberated from debris and the excavations reached the bottom, where it was found a type of paving made from brick, known as opus spicatum. In these excavations were found capitols, pieces of columns, inscriptions and debris dating back to the end of the V and the beginning of the VI century. It was on this occasion that the stations of the cross in the arena were finally removed. Later on, more excavations were carried out on the northern side, and at last the whole facade on that side was liberated from the debris accumulated over the centuries.
More restoration works were carried out by the Italian State in
1901-2, but the arena remained half full for many years, until in 1938-40 the excavations
made by Luigi Cozzo arrived at the very bottom, bringing to light the underground of the arena. Cozzo also
demolished all the underground structures that had been added to the original construction
during the millennia, rebuilt parts of the underground structures on the western side and
a small part of the cavea – with the seats (see
picture).
Constant small repairs have been made since WW2, and a major restoration of some arches on
the NW side was started in 1978. In 1981 the Roman universities focused on the study of
the ancient monuments of the city.
In 1992 a private bank financed restoration works, that lasted until 2000, with only a section restored, its cleanliness dramatically contrasting with the rest of the monument (see that in the picture on the main page). The future works include the rebuilding of the arena, in wood, also to protect the exposed underground structures from the weather. The eastern half of the new arena was completed in 2000, and before covering the other half studies are being carried out on the effect of the new cover on the underground microclimate. In 1997 a very important survey was carried out, measuring the Colosseum with laser and infrared techniques. This research has given us some insight on the deformation of the structures and a very precise map of the amphitheatre, and rekindled an old controversy between the archaeologists: is the Colosseum elliptic or ovoidal?
On January 21, 2011, the Associated Press reported that "The founder of Tod's luxury leather and footwear will foot the euro 25 million ($34 million) bill to restore the ancient monument which is blackened by pollution and rocked by vibrations from a nearby subway line. Work will begin at the end of the year, and will take between two and two and a half years. The monument will remain open to tourists during the restoration."
