A double urban life cycle: the case of Rome

Abstract

Rome is distinguished from the large majority of cities by the double life cycle of its long history. In this paper attention is focused on the permanent substratum structures that ensured ‘continuity in change’ during this city’s transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages: for the Muratorian school this is the basic principle of ‘cyclic law’ that regulates the life and history of the city. In Rome this phenomenon of rebirth is particularly clear: the basic buildings of the medieval city, attracted by the new religious centre of the Vatican, were located spontaneously in the planned fabric of the imperial special buildings in Campo Marzio. On an urban scale, this implemented the ‘medievalization process’ theorized by Gianfranco Caniggia, following Saverio Muratori’s studies of Rome’s urban history.