Rome's Colosseum gets a fresh look that recreates the footprints of long-gone columns

The project focused on a semicircular piazza outside the arena, where Roman spectators crowded under two arcades comprised of marble columns stretching up to 50 meters (164 feet) high. People stood in these arcades as they waited to pass through the entrances and take their seats.

Those arches are long gone, collapsing over the centuries from earthquakes and unstable ground. But now, tourists will be able to sit on large travertine marble slabs where their columns once stood and read reproductions of the Roman numerals that indicated seat sections.

“These blocks of travertine marble are placed, located exactly where the pillars, the original pillars were based,” said Italian architect Stefano Boeri, who designed the piazza. “The idea we had was to give back to the public the perception of the proportion of the arcades and the proportion of the vaults of the arches that were used to enter in the center of the Colosseum.”

Over time, the outside area became filled with detritus, including pieces of ruins, and overgrown with weeds.

Restorers began by digging a meter (yard) to where the travertine paving stones once covered the entrance area. They discovered coins, statues, animal bones and a gold ring. Deeper down is the secret underground passageway where Emperor Commodus used to enter the Colosseum while avoiding the hoi-polloi, and which was opened to the public last year.

Restorers sourced the new slabs of travertine from the same quarries where the ancient Romans retrieved theirs — and that today are used build a new generation of religious buildings, banks, museums, government buildings and private homes.

“From the beginning we understood only one thing and that was that we wanted to be involved,” Fabrizio Mariotti, head of the Mariotti Carlo stonecutting firm that has been carving travertine to order for four generations in Tivoli, said Tuesday while sitting on a slab of the stone.

“For a family like ours that has been working with travertine for four generations, working at the Colosseum, which is the symbol not only of Rome but also of this material, is so important.”

Earlier this year, the city of Rome opened two new subway stations, one deep beneath the Colosseum completing a multi-billion euro metro project. The restoration of the Colosseum’s perimeter was done using compensatory funds from the metro, project officials said.