Colosseum’s Ancient Colours

Ten restorers working on arches. Scaffolding to be removed before summer

ROME- “Those of us who work on and for the Colosseum are used to living with what is probably the world’s most famous monument. And the world will be surprised to discover its true colour. But I’m sure that when the scaffolding is removed in a few weeks’ time before the summer, the Colosseum will surprise even us”. The voice, quivering with emotion, belongs to Rossella Rea, who has been in charge of the Colosseum since 2008. 
Restoration work on the first ten north arches of Rome’s Flavian Amphitheatre began last September. Slowly, the ancient but very new colour of its travertine stone is coming to light. The overall hue is pale but shades from honey to ochre and chestnut brown, varying considerably in the space of a few centimetres to reveal its astonishing gold-tinged riches.

Yellow, gold and amber

Architect Gisella Capponi, the Colosseum restoration site manager and head of the college of conservation and restoration (she drafted plans for the restoration of the Tower of Pisa), calls the tone “amberish. A colour that derives from ‘time’s patina’, the calcium oxalate that accumulates naturally over the years and has been meticulously conserved during the cleaning operations. What will disappear completely is the black coating left by traffic and pollution”. Ms Capponi explains that the area of the Colosseum involved in the first stage of restoration is the part most blackened by modern-day chemical agents: “It’s the area closest to traffic, where particulate deposits are thickest”.

Here we are at the heart of the restoration site. And this is the cleaning system, a spider’s web of tubing that feeds hundreds of adjustable-intensity sprinkler nozzles, each with its own tap. No chemicals and nothing aggressive; just ordinary Roman mains water directed at varying intensities from a few centimetres away onto the travertine. The stone is naturally “alveolate” with an irregular honeycomb-like texture that is ideal for trapping dirt.

Ten specialist graduate restorers are hard at work under the meticulous guidance of the project’s scientific directors. Gisella Capponi again: “We certainly didn’t use sand blasters, which are much too powerful and suited to other tasks. We’re using water with great care here because it has to dissolve impurities but must not abrade the surface or damage that precious patina of time”. Another unknown factor is sulphation, the pollution-driven transformation of the travertine’s calcium carbonate into chalk. Finally, restorers have to deal with the reinforced concrete inserted between the stone slabs in the first two arches during the late 20th-century stabilisation work. Fortunately they don’t seem to intrude overall.

Work to continue for five more years

The Colosseum project is extraordinary maintenance. However, the approach of Rome’s special superintendency for the archaeological heritage under Mariarosaria Barbera is one of ordinary maintenance. “Our funding that is perhaps modest but constant to ensure proper conservation for the monuments. However the Colosseum needed intervention that was extraordinary. Damage inflicted by post-war pollution is not even remotely comparable to what took place over nineteen centuries. The demise of coal heating, which was banned in Italy in September 2005, has improved the situation but traffic and mechanical vibration have worsened”.

Cleaning the Colosseum’s exterior will take another two years. A service centre will be completed - “It will remain strictly the property of the superintendency”, Ms Barbera points out - and then work will continue on the underground area, the covered galleries on the first and second tier and other installations. Completion is expected in five years. As has been reported, the restoration is being funded by a €25 million grant from the Tod’s group. Owner Diego Della Valle remarked: “I consider it an honour to sponsor the Colosseum restoration. A pledge that makes us proud to be Italian. I’d like to see other successful private-sector companies dedicating some of their resources to this sort of activity. We should be setting a positive example for Italy by promoting Italian culture, which is our fundamental resource for economic recovery”.

Yes to private sector but with rules

Is superintendent Barbera worried about a private-sector invasion? “I work for the state in the state. I am more than ever convinced that the public sector has a duty to guarantee the protection, promotion and consumption of our heritage. But why vilify well-regulated interaction with the private sector, based on precise rules for purposes of public interest?”.

The forecourt outside the Colosseum is the uncontested domain of centurions, drinks vans, souvenir stalls and unlicensed guides pestering the tourists. Rossella Rea sighs: “I won’t comment on this distressing scene. The more the city authorities promise to restore order, the more of them there are. Unlicensed traders”. They’ll do good business when the Colosseum gleams gold under the Roman sun.