This monograph documents the excavation work and restoration carried out to preserve St Helen's Mausoleum as part of a far-reaching urban improvement project for the eastern sector of Rome's suburbs.
This monograph documents the excavation work and restoration carried out to preserve St Helen’s Mausoleum by the Superintendence for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome together with the Pontifical Commission for Holy Archaeology as part of a far-reaching urban improvement project for the eastern sector of Rome’s suburbs. Analytical academic essays and summaries are accompanied by numerous photographs illustrating the various stages of the dig together with detailed diagrams and superb three-dimensional reconstructions of the monument, its luxurious internal decorations and the surrounding area. One of the most interesting features of the work for the cultured general reader and professionals alike are the numerous fact files on the new finds that have come to light, including sculptures, inscriptions and coins, some of them of truly extraordinary artistic or historical value. The excavations have vastly improved our knowledge and understanding of the monument, bringing to light the atrium and the structures of the Constantine’s Basilica immediately adjacent. The restoration project involved a large amount of work but has been a notable success; recent additions to the original historical buildings have been removed, clearing the whole perimeter and regaining the area of the niche in the parish church for a future planned museum that will illustrate to visitors the monument and vast surrounding necropolis that hinges on the mausoleum, and also in view of the reopening of the St Marcellinus’ and St Peter’s catacombs, both illustrated in the volume.