Walking through medieval Trastevere, it is easy to forget about the classical Roman city that once flourished across the river. This neighborhood, now home to much of Rome’s nightlife and many of its most recognizably medieval buildings, was included in the Emperor Aurelian’s city walls, first constructed in 270-275 CE. Repaired consistently from the Roman period onward, these walls served a practical purpose as well as a symbolic one. The walls served as defensive structures and as delineations of the ancient city. But by the later medieval period, the inhabited part of the city was concentrated around the Tiber, meaning that large sections of the walls’ enclosure were no longer in daily use. Popes and other Roman leaders could have torn down the walls and re-built them in a manner that better fit the changing city. Instead, Popes decided to repair the walls, beautifying and making their personal mark on the city. The rebuilding of the walls also represents a re-emphasis on Rome’s classical legacy in the unstable political climate of the Middle Ages. Archaeological surveys have enabled historians to date the repairs made on the walls based on the materials used in different sections: in the period 750-850 CE, blocks of tufa (the volcanic bedrock of the Eternal City) were used to repair walls and other buildings. If archaeologists can confidently date a church that uses this tufa repair method, they can then date similarly-repaired sections of the Aurelian walls with confidence. Emphasizing the regularity and logistical complexity of these repair programs, Robert Coates-Stephens argues that “the extent of the restorations gives an idea of the efficiency of the papal organization of public building in the early medieval city.” Based on Coates-Stephens’ synthesis of previous archaeological research and his own archaeological surveys, it has become clear that the 19km wall around the city has been consistently maintained and appreciated throughout the medieval era and into the nineteenth century.
Blue Guide to Rome. Somerset: Blue Guides Limited, 2010. Coates-Stephens, Robert. “The Walls and Aqueducts of the Early Middle Ages, AD 500-1000.” The Journal of Roman Studies 88 (1998): 166-178. Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Place
700s