Crypta Balbi

Overview

Part of the National Roman Museum, the Crypta Balbi is arguably the most unique, fiercely intensely fascinating archaeological site in Rome. Instead of just displaying statues, it brilliantly violently cuts a massive vertical slice straight down through a single city block, exposing 2,000 years of continuous, chaotic urban evolution layered deeply on top of each other.

Highlights

• The Layers: You literally physically descend from a modern street, down through a Renaissance palace courtyard, past a massive medieval rope-making factory, down into a dark 8th-century garbage dump, finally reaching the massive ancient Roman foundations at the very bottom.
• The Exedra: The deeply massive, spectacularly sweeping curved brick wall of the original ancient Crypta (a massive covered portico attached to the Theatre of Balbus) fiercely exposed in the deep basement.
• The Artifacts: The museum brilliantly displays every single deeply mundane object fiercely dug out of the dirt on this exact spot—from wildly broken ancient Roman pottery to medieval coins and Renaissance keys.

History

The site originally housed the massive Theatre of Balbus built in 13 BC. When the mighty Roman Empire violently collapsed, the massive theater fell into ruin. Instead of wildly clearing the rubble, deeply desperate medieval Romans fiercely built their tiny houses and workshops aggressively directly into the massive stone arches of the theater. Eventually, a fierce 16th-century conservatory was violently built completely over those medieval houses, perfectly preserving the massive historical lasagna.

Visitor Tips

• The Concept: This is not a fiercely traditional art museum. It is a wildly brilliant, highly intellectual deep dive into urban archaeology. Come here if you fiercely want to deeply understand exactly how ancient Rome physically decayed into modern Rome.