Behind the Recent Restorations in Rome

Historical monuments last if they are looked after. This requires money, the availability of which fluctuates, meaning that campaigns of conservation and restoration might seemingly come all at once, as has been happening in Rome over the last year.

Ostensibly, the main reason for the burst of recent work is that 2025 is a Papal Jubilee year, designated by the Pope to be of particular significance for the Catholic Church. Since their inception, these ‘Holy Years’ (the first was in 1300) have been intended to encourage pilgrims to flock to the city. In preparation for millions of extra visitors anticipated to arrive in Rome this year, major piazzas have been redesigned, fountains cleaned, churches renovated, and dozens of archaeological sites conserved, including ancient tombs, temples, and housing.

In the distant past, the Vatican or the old aristocratic families of Rome footed the bill for maintaining and enhancing the city’s built heritage (inscriptions testifying to earlier restorations can be seen on many of the monuments). Today, it primarily falls to the Italian State or Municipality of Rome to find the money. 

However, much of the new work is funded by the ‘National Recovery and Resilience Plan’ (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza - PNRR), part of the European Union’s post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery scheme ‘Next Generation EU’. The hundreds of millions of euros made available to Rome (not just for historic sites, but also infrastructure and other urban projects) is the reason that so much activity is underway right now—the money is available and needs to be spent by set deadlines.

Therefore, while the Jubilee Year is the catalyst for aspects of the recent regeneration, particularly the renovation of the piazzas at key religious sites and the main railway station, it is not the only factor. 

Many of the archaeological sites under restoration are in areas of Rome far removed from where visitors typically go, and work on them is not due to be completed until 2026. This is part of a grander ‘Rome Transforms’ (Roma si Trasforma) project, which involves hundreds of planned, ongoing, and completed interventions across the city.

Over the last two decades, private money has also played an increasingly conspicuous role in the restoration of Rome's monuments (perhaps encouraged by a 2014 tax credit scheme). At the forefront have been major Italian companies, particularly luxury fashion brands: Tod’s and Colosseum; Bulgari and the ancient Baths of Caracalla, the Roman temples at Largo Argentina, and the Spanish Steps; Fendi and the Trevi Fountain and the Temple of Venus and Roma; Gucci and the ‘Tarpeian Rock’; and the telecommunications company Tim and the Mausoleum of the emperor Augustus. 

Non-Italian individuals have made similar donations for varying reasons. The first century BC pyramid-shaped funerary monument of the Roman magistrate Gaius Cestius was restored with funding from the Japanese businessman Yuzo Yagi. The billionaire Alisher Usmanov paid for the conservation of the Dioscuri fountain on the Quirinal Hill,  the frescoed Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii in the Capitoline Museums, and the reconstruction of a section of the ancient Basilica Ulpia.

The Azerbaijan-based Heydar Aliyev Foundation, presided over by the First Lady of Azerbaijan, sponsored the conservation of the ‘Hall of the Philosophers’ in the Capitoline Museums. It has also made repeated contributions to the Vatican Holy See for the restoration of three sets of ancient catacombs (vast networks of underground rock-cut burial chambers), a tomb in the Vatican Necropolis, a statue of Zeus, and a bas-relief panel in St Peter’s Basilica depicting the meeting of Pope Leo I and Attila the Hun.

Yet, some sites continue to suffer from a lack of attention— notably, the ancient City Walls. First built by the Emperor Aurelian in the 270s AD, they were the ancient city’s largest ever building project. But, their impressive 19 km length (of which approximately 80% still stands) also means that maintenance of its full course is extremely challenging. Already in antiquity, the Walls required extensive restoration, and their patchwork appearance testifies to the numerous reconstructions that have taken place over the centuries. 

Today, certain stretches of the Walls are in good condition and are accessible to the public; other areas are neglected. Media outlets and politicians are quick to report stories of tourists graffitiing monuments in the city centre, but the fact that parts of the Walls, further afield, are overgrown, covered in spray-paint, are used to dump rubbish, and have people rough sleeping against them provokes less comment. 

1,190,000 euros of Roma Transforms funds are allocated to repair and consolidate a stretch of the Walls bordering the British Embassy in Rome, in response to a partial collapse. This section is only some 200 metres long and it gives an idea of the costs for maintaining the entire circuit. 

Rome, and Italy more generally, makes tremendous efforts to care for its historic sites and has enormous expertise in fields of conservation and restoration. The difficulty is that its artistic and architectural heritage is vast and the work is continuous. Hiding famous buildings and works of art behind awnings and scaffolding can be frustrating for visitors, but it is a sign of care, and a necessary one.