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The Restoration of 1995-1998

  History       Restorations    

The building was declared unfit for use by the Municipality of Rome in 1987. The restoration began in 1995, starting from some urgent interventions at the cealings, the vaults, and some external walls.

The façade needed no special intervention. It was painted in a purplish scratched paint, according to the directions of the Superintence Office for Environment and Architecture
Glasses and casings, probably dating back to Petrignani’s restoration, were in good conditions. Where damaged, the lead-finished glass-blown windows were replaced with new ones.

The restoration of the vaults was more complicated: they have been strengthened through injections of grout. The rooms of the building were floored with new terra cotta tiles, except in the corridor hall of the entrance, where they kept the original floor made of bricks placed in a refined herringbone way (opus spicatum).

The courtyard, in a great decay, was also restored. The idea of pointing the tower out of the façade was eventually given up in order to respect the history of the building along four centuries of changes. The opus spicatum floor has been repaired, the courtyard façades have been repainted, and the graffiti decoration has been restored by specialists.

The basement, placed seven metres below the street level, needed to be dried since it was flooded with drain and rain water.
The old - and well preserved - opus spicatum floor and some drain wells were found out under a moderne tile floor. During the restoration works, parts of Roman walls were discovered, together with two medieval basins, probably belonging to the old monastery, and some ancient plumbings. Moreover, the old access to the tower was discovered, together with the remains of an old staircase.

On the first floor, the beams of the caisson ceiling - painted with floral motifs and Burckardt's coat of arms - and the remnants of frescoes on the walls have been restored.
On the right wall of the larger hall, there are two pieces of a urban scene: the oriental look of the buildings suggested the hypothesis that the frescoes represented Jerusalem. On the opposite wall, above the arch leading to the second room, there is a small fragment of a countryside scene, traditionally believed a representation of Burckardt's birthplace.
The ceiling and the frieze decorations date probably back to the building times. They represent allegoric motifs of the Roman classical age and coats of arms; two coats of arms of the Piccolomini family - they owned a mansion in the current piazza Vidoni - have been identified. One of the beams in the ceiling is painted with a dove bearing a ribbon in its beak; the writing painted on this ribbon might be interpreted as "congruum tempus habes".
On the South wall in the next room, there is a fresco representing a niched naked Apollo.

Between the second and the third floor, the place of the old tower has been restored by removing the toilets installed during the works of 1931, and by replacing them with a steel winding staircase with peperino stone steps, as a reminder of the old wooden staircase. On the third floor, an exhibition niche has been obtained from one of the old doors of the tower. On this floor, the early 1900s furniture of the library has been kept.

The fourth floor used to be the terrace of the building; in the 19th century the Cartoni family built up this floor, and then it became the housekeeper’s dwelling. This rooms, restored and repainted, nowadays house some offices of the library. The terrace has been completely insulated and provided with a new floor.

  History       Restorations    

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Latest update: 07-06-07