The Palatine Museum

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The Flavian Amphitheatre Museum

The Colosseum Museum, located on the second level of the amphitheatre, represents a thematic itinerary within the exhibition space. Well-designed signposting identifies the most significant itineraries to make the most of the visit.

The archaeological research of the last few years, together with the most recent exhibitions and the printed publications in which they have been incorporated, have provided experts with a greater understanding of the long life of the Colosseum, its reuses and even its ideological meanings. The Museum's exhibition brings together the most remarkable works from the building and excavations, organised in such a way as to illustrate the salient aspects of the monument through hypertextual and hypermedia expansions.

The first section is the starting point of the museum and is based on the architecture of the great anti-theatre, with exhibits such as capitals and fragments of transennas and the impressive reconstruction of the vomitoria. In this section, the strength of the monument as a model of architecture over the centuries is highlighted. A signature left by Hubert Robert on the 'living flesh' of the Colosseum is an obvious artistic example of existential identification with the building. The paintings reproduced in the explanatory panels faithfully show the types of use of the ground floor, in a manner already prevalent in the late Middle Ages.

The second section illustrates the functioning of the amphitheatre and daily life inside it through plastic models and exhibits. In addition, graffiti, mosaics and reliefs describing the gladiator's trade and subjects of venationes are presented.

The third section is dedicated to the spectators, with senatorial loca whose inscriptions show a division of seats on the tiers of seats. A variety of marbles on display describe the sculptural apparatus of the monument, including their original location, if known.

The following fourth focuses on the ideological reuse of the monument, transformed into a symbol of the new empire in the years of the empire. The section then follows with an illustration of the Middle Ages of the Colosseum, its "Christianisation" and, as a counterpoint, the evocation of a "magical" and demonic Colosseum.

The exhibition in the Colosseum Museum ends with the section on the 'philological' reconstruction of Lucangeli's model and the 'leafy arches' of romantic views and writings from the Grand Tour.

Opening Hours

The Museum is open daily, Monday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

The last visit is one hour before closing time. 

 

 

 

 

How to get to the Flavian Amphitheatre Museum

Metro: Line B stop Colosseo

Buses: No. 75, 81, 87, 673, 175, 204

Tramway: No 3

Book also Roman Palatine Forum and Domus Aurea
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