Deep grooves in the hard surface of volcanic black basalt slabs below the Arco dei Gavi in Verona, Veneto, Italy, were worn by ancient Roman carts, wagons and chariots. The arch, built for a noble family in the 1st century AD, was demolished by the French in 1805, but then rebuilt on a new site in 1932 by Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, complete with this relaid short stretch of Roman highway. The arch once spanned Verona’s entry to the Via Postumia or Via Sacra, an important road linking Liguria in northern Italy’s far west to Illyria in the western Balkans.
Verona, Veneto, Italy: deep grooves in the hard surface of volcanic black basalt rocks beneath the Arco dei Gavi were cut by ancient Roman carts, wagons and chariots. The arch was built for a noble family in the 1st century AD, demolished by the French in 1805, but then rebuilt on a new site in 1932 by Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, complete with a short relaid stretch of Roman highway. On its original site, the arch spanned Verona’s access to the Via Postumia or Via Sacra, an important Roman road linking Liguria in northern Italy’s far west to ancient Illyria, the western Balkan region stretching from Albania to Istria in modern Croatia. It now stands in a nearby location beside the Castelvecchio fortress and facing the River Adige. Although the Arco dei Gavi looks like a typical Roman Corinthian triumphal arch celebrating rulers or military victories, it was designed by architect Lucius Vitruvius Cerdo purely to glorify the powerful local Gavi dynasty, and its niches once displayed statues of Gavi family members. In the medieval era, the arch was used as a gateway in Verona’s city walls, but when Italy came under Napoleonic rule, French engineers viewed it as a hindrance to local traffic and to military mule trains. They demolished it, leaving the rubble piled up for decades in Piazza Cittadella before it was moved under an arch of the city’s Roman Arena. In the early 1930s, Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, exhorting Italians to identify with their Roman past, decided to rebuild the arch on a new site, re-using some of the original stones. The reconstruction was based on 16th century plans drawn up by the influential Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, as well as a wooden model made prior to the 1805 demolition. A grey marble rectangle now marks the place where the arch once stood.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Verona, Veneto, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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