The Rome city section of the Via Appia Antica is a cultural hub shaped over 20 centuries or more. It is a depository of studies, works and thoughts as too the destructiveness and indifference of people. This boundless reservoir still possesses a secret legacy of knowledge on age-old events and the changes that accompanied them.
The essays in this book look at the Via Appia from many angles: the fluctuating worth of its landscape, the potential – and diverse – interpretations of its monuments and its surrounding area, the comparison of different approaches to its portrayal, the restoration campaigns launched in the 19th century and the untiring efforts of those charged today with its protection. This is followed by texts, drawings and surveys of more than 70 tombs, the fruit of a study campaign embarked on by the Restoration Workshop of the Department of Architecture of Roma Tre University, recording the specificities of the single ruins and examining their many architectural forms, construction methods, sizes and states of conservation.