The Temple Peace, one of the
lesser known structures of Rome's Imperial Fora, is set
to rise again in time for the city's birthday commemoration,
a cultural heritage official said Thursday.
With reconstruction work set to begin in early March, five
columns missing from what remains of the temple built by Emperor
Vespasian in about 75 AD will be reconstructed by April 21,
Rome's birthday, said the municipal Superintendent of Cultural
Heritage Claudio Parisi Presicce.
"The goal is to replace the five marble columns of the
Egyptian portico that surrounded the temple, where they were at
the time of Vespasian," he said.
What remains of the Temple of Peace, sometimes known as the
Forum of Peace, now rests in the present Roman Forum near Largo
Corrado Ricci.
One of its original walls has been incorporated into the
Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in the Roman Forum, where
holes can stil be seen that were once used to affix a marble map
of ancient Rome that dated from the third century AD.
The restoration work will help to shed light on another
element of Rome's history for visitors.
"Of the five Imperial Fora...it is the least known because
unfortunately, most of the remains are underground but...we plan
to expand the excavations of the visible surface," said Parisi
Presicce.
"The goal is to resurrect this forum which is currently not
known by citizens, reassembling the five Egyptian marble columns
of the quadrangle surrounding the temple, where they were
at the time of Vespasian," he added.
The plan is to include the restored Temple of Peace in
large-scale illuminations of the Imperial Fora on the night of
April 21.
According to tradition, that is the date when Rome was
founded in 753 BC by some accounts.
Parisi Presicce said that large fragments of the Egyptian
marble colonnade have been studied and recomposed for the
restoration project using "very sophisticated technical work"
that takes account of seismic issues.
The danger of earthquake is ever present up and down the
Italian peninsula.
Two sections of the original quadrangle that surrounded the
Temple of Peace are still in place, he said.
Parisi Presicce said that excavation of the area dates back
to the 1930s.
That's when the Fascist administration of Mussolini
constructed the modern Via Fori Imperiali that cut through the
Imperial Fora, leaving the fora of Augustus, Nerva and Trajan on
one side, with the Forum of Caesar and the Roman Forum on the
other.
It is believed the Vespasian began work on the Temple of
Peace after the capture of Jerusalem in AD 71.
It may have included treasures looted from the Temple in
Jerusalem.
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