Castra Albana - Knowledge

960: 810: 643:(instead of the more usual Porta Principalis), 36 m wide and still 14 m tall, and a unique example of legionary fortress architecture. It overlooked the Via Appia 20 m away which passed in front of it and was a form of imperial propaganda aimed at passing travellers. Located at the midpoint of the wall, the gate was incorporated into a later building until the devastating Anglo-American aerial bombardment of 1 February 1944. The central archway measures around 3 x 5 m with a height of 14 metres while the two side archways were a little over 1 x 5 m. The two side chambers each measure 5.4 x 5 m. 786: 448: 29: 556: 661: 1006: 669: 1196: 1058: 1224:

least the front of the monumental structure was ornate. Until the 1920s only a single supply tunnel of the cistern was known, which is located on the northeastern side. But the archaeologist Giuseppe Lugli discovered a second, more ancient tunnel on the same side, which served the cistern through a complex system until it broke. The water came to the

1153:), inside the property of the episcopal seminary and the property of the Daughters of Immaculate Mary on San Fracesco d'Assisi Street. These ruins consist of five walls of the substructure arranged on different levels. On the second level, traces of a partition wall were found, which created rooms about 6 metres wide. 1301:

grave with a broken column, characteristic of eastern tombs and a tomb with a cremation - the only one in the necropolis. Wives and children were buried alongside the soldiers and there was no order to the arrangement of the tombs, although they were often grouped together. From analysis of the grave

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and were razed to the ground during its construction. "An intricate pattern of walls" was found under the Piazza della Rotonda, where the excavators of 1915-1916 found the remains of the rooms mixed with blocks of peperino fallen from the nearby wall of the northwest side. Other rooms were identified

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with mythological figures, today located in the portico of the church. The second theory is supported by a peperino pagan altar and by some tombs found during archaeological excavations in 1935–38. After the Severan period, the structure was used as a granary or cult building, before conversion to a

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and even allowing for the existence of a second story (per Giuseppe Lugli), the tower would not have reached a plausible height to be a guard tower. The conclusion is that this was a special construction, perhaps only for symmetry with the now-destroyed tower of the southeast corner. At any rate, it

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Further to the north, the wall is visible for stretches facing Via San Pancrazio. On the same street, the well-conserved remains of a circular guard tower can be accessed, 3.4 m below the modern ground level of the Via Alcide de Gasperi. The construction poses a problem: the vault of the single room

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of water. The structure, with five aisles, was carved into the bedrock as far as possible to a depth of between three and four metres; the height of the vaults is around 6.5 metres, with significant variation. On account of some ornamental elements discovered in 1830 and 1884 it is believed that at

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Turning onto the Via Castro Partico sixty metres from the rounded corner, the wall contains a rectangular guard tower, currently put to use as a farmhouse. The internal space measures 5.9 x 3.8 metres and the walls are 0.9 metres thick (except the exterior wall which is inexplicably only 0.6 metres

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and even of the baths. The building, with a maximum length of 113 metres, could fit 14,850 seats and contain up to 16,000 people. The southern half of the amphitheatre is visible, while the northern part is buried under the retaining walls of San Francesco d'Assisi St and Anfiteatro Romano Street.

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In the 1960s about fifty tombs were discovered, of which two thirds had mortuary inscriptions. All were made in the same way, with the graves dug into the living rock and covered by a monolithic block of peperino in the form of a roof or a lid. In the excavations of 1960-2 two unusual graves were

921:, the street which encircled the walls on the outside, have been discovered along the north east side under the modern Tacito Street; along the southwest side near the aforementioned rectangular guard tower on Castro Partico Street, 1.5 metres below ground level at a spot 18 metres from the 500:

The amphitheatre was built in the middle of the 3rd century and could mark the end of the period of highest prosperity for the Legio II Parthica which may no longer have been there. The fortress was abandoned in the late 3rd or early 4th century and the civilian town expanded over it.

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was built. The construction was made difficult by the position of the encampment on an 11 degree slope. The perimeter of the wall circuit is 1334 metres with sides northwest 434 m, southeast 437 m, northeast 224 m, southwest 239 m. The total area is around 95,000 m.

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has a diameter of 1.2 m, a height of 2.1 m and its walls are 0.9 m thick. Other remains of the wall on this side were found in 1913, during the construction of the modern piazza Giosuè Carducci, and more have been incorporated into the foundations of modern houses.

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During the archaeological excavations of 1915–1916, they found walls of 4.5 x 4.5 metre rooms in various constructive techniques on top of older walls dating back to the 1st century BC, all along San Francesco d'Assisi Street from the rectangular tower to the

1113:. These remains are under some houses on Don Giovanni Minzoni Street and are made up of two corridors, about a metre deep, one 2.70 metres long and the other 3.29 metres, with a series of niches along the walls. The construction was entirely carried out in 1043:

Remains have been found of a paved street which probably followed the course of the modernday Anfiteatro Romano Street to link up with the Appian Way and followed the modern "galleria di sopra" in the other direction to the Villa of Domitian.

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was located on the location of a courtyard off the Via Don Giovanni Minzoni. The wall then proceeded along the line of the facades of the houses on the south side of the modern Via San Gaspare del Bufalo, passing the sixteenth century

497:, the Legio Parthica refused to accept him as sole emperor. He went in person to Castra Albana and convinced the legion to remain loyal increasing their stipend by 50% and improving the camp by having the Baths of Caracalla built. 777:, where some remains were found during some hydraulic work in 1904, arranged in horizontal layers to deal with the steep slope of the terrain. There the wall meets the corner described above in the section on the northeast side. 713:. At the corner of their property, the rounded corner of the ancient wall is still visible, but the circular turret is not, though the need for the wall to bear its weight is reflected in the stronger structure of the wall. 702:, which govern the church of San Paulo. This stretch was built with very great care, because it had to function as the external retaining wall. For this reason it is also very monumental and robust. No trace remains of the 925:, and a little further along in the public carpark; along the southeast side 0.5 metres below San Pancrazio Street; and along the northwest side in the piazza della Rotonda, on San Gaspare del Bufalo Street and in the 202:

It was the only permanent legionary fortress in Italy and had the role of protecting the emperor, while all other legions were distributed through the provinces for defence of the empire. It was located near to the

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Aurelius and therefore it is deduced that they served in the time of the legion's greatest prosperity, during the reigns of Caracalla (211-217) and Elagabalus (218-222). The women, on the other hand, have

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and the other on San Francesco d'Assisi Street, which was discovered during the archaeological excavations of 1915–1916, 1.1 metres below the modern ground level. This stretch is important because the

1187:, interspersed with blocks of peperino from the end of the second century. In the 1980s, further remains of lodgings were identified, as well as a building with a portico on Castro Pretorio Street. 910:(Fifth Street), which connected the rectangular guard towers. Given the location of one of these towers in Castro Partico Street, the remains of a perpendicular street were found on the part of the 1081:

of the Villa of Domitian. Later it was restored and incorporated into the Severan complex and used as a public baths or cult site. The first theory would explain the paviment of white and black

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Past the Via San Francesco d'Assisi, on which the Medieval gate of the Cappuchins opened until the second half of the Nineteenth century, the wall follows the Via Tacito, on the property of the

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in Alcide De Gasperi Street. The first stretch of this main sewer, 0.9 m wide, was discovered in 1915–6 at the intersection of Alcide De Gasperi Street and San Francesco d'Assisi Street.

734: 884: 710: 370: 1110: 695:. The circular room inside the convent, described before the war, had a diameter of 3.6 m and was covered by a low dome of very poor workmanship, probably a modern repair. 1066: 790: 770: 569:, the Castra Albana followed a regular design of a large fortified rectangle with rounded corners reinforced by circular turrets (an unusual feature, but similar to the 1293:

at the end of the nineteenth century. Further campaigns were carried out by Giuseppe Lugli in 1908, 1910, 1913, 1945, and 1960-2 and by Maria Marchetti Longhi in 1916.

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was discovered under Aurelio Saffi Street. It was probably part of a larger. A stretch of the supply tunnel of the cistern survives as well, pointing to the northeast.

262: 1612:. The last epigraphic evidence regarding the Legio II Parthica at Albano is a series of little terracotta bricks which report the names of fome legionaries ( 976: 975:

and probably for the garrison, but before the amphitheatre. The best conserved part of the baths is a rectangular hall, 37 x 12 metres which is home to the

681: 1208: 926: 794: 774: 1215:(giant cisterns). The long sides measure 45.50 and 47.90 metres, while the short sides are 29.62 and 31.90 metres long, for a surface area of 1436.50 1271:, were made in 1866 by a farmer called Lorenzo Fortunato and were analysed by the young Russian archaeologist Nicola Wendt. The German archaeologist 1764: 433:

in (117-136), who also began a policy of selling surplus Imperial property, including some of the villas on the edge of "Albanum Caesarum".

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when the Emperor was in residence. The villa was frequently used by Domitian but later fell into disuse, on account of the construction of

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on an estate containing several imperial properties, with an area of about 14 km. The villa was probably garrisoned by a detachment of the

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Unlike other fortresses, there were no external defensive ditches or earthworks, as indicated by a road which ran just outside the walls.

1688: 1679: 1662: 1636: 1627: 1618: 1609: 1600: 1591: 1574: 1562: 1545: 1536: 1527: 1518: 1509: 1500: 1491: 1482: 1457: 1448: 1428: 1419: 1410: 1401: 1392: 1383: 1374: 1365: 1356: 1347: 1338: 1329: 1232:. The cistern was still used by the Comune of Albano in 1884, but for hygiene reasons it was restricted to use for irrigation in 1912. 1281:

found in the inscriptions discovered at Selvotta would have to indicate a necropolis of the legion, located a short distance from the

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At the end of the northeastern side of the circuit wall, probable traces of a circular turret were found within the building of the

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Parallel walls were found in 1914 near the northwest side, in the Piazza della Rotonda. They are not aligned with the grid of the

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The greater part of the wall of this side, after the aforementioned circular tower is buried under modern houses. Presumably, the

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and a large amount of what there is was discovered around the necropolis in Selvotta. This large concentration of inscriptions (

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and the Ramacci company on the site of a demolished seminary on Castro Pretorio Street discovered the intersection between the

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and in the neighbouring civilian settlement, such as the so-called Baths of Caracalla and the Amphitheatre, can still be seen.

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must have been extensive and would have followed the slope of the hill, discharging into the main sewer running under the

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is the best preserved Roman structure in Albano. The circular interior has a circumference of 49.1 m and mimicks the

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Some individual ruins in the ground near the piazza della Rotonda and Don Giovanni Minzoni Street have been called "

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of the bath, connected to other bathing rooms located in Piazza della Rotonda, near the modern Palazzo Vescovile.

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A well-preserved stretch of about fifty metres serves as the boundary wall between the episcopal seminary and the

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Studi storico-archeologici sulla città e sul territorio di Marino ordinati in tre volumi per Girolamo Torquati

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