Dall’archeologia dell’architettura all’archeologia della città: il progetto di ricerca sul Campidoglio medievale

Abstract

A recent intervention of conservation of the rooms in the tower of Pope Boniface IX at Palazzo Senatorio provided the Direction for the Archaeological and
Art-Historical Museums of the Sovrintendenza Capitolina with the opportunity for initiating a research project on the promotion and management of the
Medieval monuments in the Campidoglio.
The approach chosen involves the methods of ‘Archeology of Architecture’, including a stratigraphic analysis of the built structures, the compilation of the
relevant catalog of USS and USMM, and the elaboration of a stratigraphic diagram, with the goal of construing the relative chronology of each prospect through
the physical relationships of the units. In addition, the analysis of the vertical dimension of the evidence identifies masonry types and building typologies for
single structures and architectural complexes.
A further phase of the research involves the confrontation of the typological data of individual buildings against the topographical and urbanistic dimensions.
In this regard, the authors considered it necessary to analyze the urban fabric and its functional organization in a diachronic perspective, both within the
Campidoglio and with reference to the entire city. Thus it is possible to understand the nature of the settlement in the various phases of the Middle Ages, as well
as the economic role that the Hill seems to assume perhaps even earlier than the Renovatio Senatus.
As a result, a specific GIS platform for the Medieval Campidoglio has been projected as comprehensive and not limited to a single category of building
typologies.