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• 01 fév 2019

  Rome

  Call for papers - History

  Rebuilding / Restoring Rome

  The Renewal of Buildings and Spaces as Urban Policy, from Antiquity to the Present

  Everywhere in Rome, monuments are covered with ancient or modern inscriptions that not only contain the name of the original builder but also commemorate their restoration. Popes from the Quattrocento and Cinquecento who acted as urban planners, such as Sixtus IV, presented themselves as ‘restorers’, even when they were actually modernising the City. This phenomenon is not restricted to the Renaissance period: many Roman emperors already claimed to be rebuilders, such as Augustus who repaired all the damaged temples of Rome according to the Res Gestae, or Septimius Severus who was called Restitutor Vrbis on his coinage. Rome thus seems to be a city that constantly needs to be restored, rebuilt, born again. This conference aims to investigate how the notions of restoration and rebuilding were a driving force of Rome’s urban transformation throughout its history, from Antiquity to the 21^st century, as well as a political program put forward by the authorities and an ideal more or less shared by the different key actors of the city.

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