Reuse and Abuse of Roman Architecture in the Vatican Borgo during the Pontificate of Alexander VI
The pontificate of Alexander VI (1492−1503) coincided with an important promotion of urban developments in Rome and in the surroundings of Lazio that resulted in the unearthing of archaeological materials and their eventual reuse in different architectural works. It is a singular period in which the...
| Subtitles: | Reuse in Post-Roman Societies: Christian and Islamic Attitudes Towards Ruins and Spolia |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Medieval encounters
Year: 2025, Volume: 31, Issue: 5/6, Pages: 479-502 |
| Further subjects: | B
Rome
B Abuse B Architecture B Alexander VI B Vatican Borgo B Reuse |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The pontificate of Alexander VI (1492−1503) coincided with an important promotion of urban developments in Rome and in the surroundings of Lazio that resulted in the unearthing of archaeological materials and their eventual reuse in different architectural works. It is a singular period in which there was a contradictory attitude towards the ancient monuments, fluctuating between destruction and conservation. This process is particularly evident in the Vatican Borgo, where Rodrigo de Borgia promoted important reforms focused on improvements to the Castel Sant’Angelo and its connection with the Vatican palaces. These actions had an antiquarian character, since the reforms allowed the flowering of abundant Roman material that was reused to decorate the new residential structures. In addition to projecting a great street, via Alessandrina, which crossing the Meta Romuli, a known symbol of pagan and Christian Rome, they allowed the establishment of a new urban axis of imperial connotations. Rodrigo de Borgia, like Antiquity restorer (restitutor Antiquitatis), thus repeated the process he had already carried out in Civita Castellana, where the spolia reused in the Porta Borgiana and the modification of the via Flaminia appear as almost identical antecedents of what was later carried out in the Vatican. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0674 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Medieval encounters
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700674-12340228 |
