Rome-Born Architect Dreams of Completing Colosseum

Mon Mar 8,11:30 AM ET
By Claire Soares

ROME (Reuters) - The Colosseum will come full circle if one
septuagenarian Roman gets his way.

Architect Carlo Aymonino wants to rebuild the outer wall of the world's
most famous amphitheater, once rocked by earthquakes and quarried to
build other glories in the Eternal City.

"It wouldn't be an Italian Disneyland. In fact it would be the exact
opposite -- a careful scientifically correct reconstruction," the
78-year-old told Reuters in an interview.

His planned revamp could well become the next chapter in a long and
often bitter debate about whether archaeological and artistic wonders
should be left to succumb to the effects of time or be restored to their
original beauty.

The recent staging of pop concerts and art exhibitions in the Colosseum,
where once the baying Roman mob feasted on gory gladiatorial battles, is
proof that time for Italy's treasures has not stood still.

Sitting in his studio, surrounded by sketches and models, the softly
spoken Aymonino had more ammunition to use against those arguing for a
hands-off approach to antiquity.

"The Colosseum now has an electronically operated lift which the Romans
certainly didn't," he said with a wink.

Slaves sweated and toiled for about eight years to build the original
Colosseum, which was inaugurated in 80 AD with a 100-day festival of
ferocious warfare.

But Aymonino is unfazed by the thought of rebuilding the outer wall of
Italy's most visited archaeological site, which attracts almost three
million tourists a year.

"It wouldn't take much, you could use brick," he said.

UNDOING MUSSOLINI

Aymonino also wants to pull up the road built by 20th-century Fascist
dictator Benito Mussolini, which carves a path straight through the
Roman Forum.

"It's ridiculous, that street. They covered up lots of ruins and split
the Forum in two," he sighed, adding that he doesn't buy the argument
that removing the thoroughfare would gridlock an already-congested city.

"Traffic, like water, always finds a way," he said.

With the sites reunited, the bespectacled white-haired architect wants
to rebuild ruins like the Temple of Mars, which hosted solemn religious
ceremonies before being turned into a museum of art.

"The three surviving upright columns are beautiful but there are bases
of many more. So why not put them back up, making them smooth not ridged
to distinguish the old from the new?"

And then, he says, it's time to inject some vitality.

"We don't need streets of shops but why not have the odd bookshop and
cafe dotted around ... something that gives an idea of how lively it
might have been?"

Aymonino gives no figure for the cost of realizing his dream, but his
fundraising ideas may stoke controversy.

"It would be a good thing for someone like Coca-Cola to fund in terms of
publicity. They could ... tell the whole world that they'd completed the
Colosseum."

He will hand his plans to Rome's mayor on April 21, the anniversary of
the city's foundation. Then it's wait and see.

But modern-day visitors seem as averse to the idea of reconstructing the
Colosseum as 19th-century novelist Charles Dickens, who declared "God be
thanked: a ruin!"

"If there was a risk that the Colosseum would fall down or disintegrate
then that would be a different matter. I think the original structure
should be conserved," said Alex Wenham, a 26-year-old English stonemason.

And Lisa Goldscheider, a London lawyer, agreed.

"It's amazing it's still standing. Maybe it's best not to play with
history."

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