Just a couple of weeks and there Throne Room in the Palace it will be presented to the public in its original splendor. In fact, there is still a long way to go until the end of the restoration of the enormous hall, more than 40 meters long. The intervention, which required complex and painstaking work, is part of a single lot which involved the Halls of Mars, Astrea and the Throne as part of the project “Improvement of the museum offering” of the Action and Cohesion Operational Programme 2014-2020 Pon Culture and development 2014-2020. Thus, after the aesthetic restoration of the decorative appearance of the Hall, the restoration of the floors is about to be completed, all carried out by “Cooperativa Archeologia”.
In fact, while for the Halls of Astrea and Mars the intervention concerned the degraded and worn parts of the finishes, from the walls to the vaults, for that of the Throne it was necessary to intervene not only on the decorated surfaces but, in fact, on the floor. On this, made of painted terracotta, cleaning, consolidation, pictorial retouching and final waxing were carried out.
Furthermore, in recent months the restorers have worked in the presence of visitors (the rooms, in fact, are never off limits), who have shown themselves to be very intrigued and who have stopped, even for a long time, to observe. An unusual image: the professionals, sitting on the ground or semi-reclining on spheres called “Swiss balls”, were concentrated and busy repainting the entire floor with small brushes. To carry out the restoration, the room was completely emptied, even the throne was removed and now, in a few days, everything will return to its place returned to the admiration of tourists. Meanwhile, the large construction site for the “Functional adaptation and decoration of the main road of the Royal Park” is proceeding busily, financed by the Culture and Tourism Plan (FSC) 2014-2020, for an amount based on the contract of 2,191,453.54 euros.
The intervention, which involves the reconstruction of the walking surface of both the axes that lead from the square above the bridge of Hercules to the fountain of Venus and Adonis, is aimed at improving the overall usability of the Park and guaranteeing full accessibility, with particular attention to sustainability. The flooring will be made of stabilized earth, an eco-friendly material with reduced maintenance activity which allows atmospheric water to be quickly absorbed, avoiding the effects of runoff and stagnation, typical of continuous flooring. The works will be carried out over a period of approximately six months, but, also in this case, without precluding visitors from the possibility of traveling along the “Waterway”.
In fact, the areas subject to intervention will be operated in pieces for a length of approximately 500 metres. The construction site will be itinerant, fenced, from time to time, based on the areas completed, trying to minimize the visual impact and emissions of dust and noise. A demanding intervention which, however, will balance the needs of the construction site with those of use of the Royal Park, crossed by thousands of pedestrians, bicycles and motor vehicles. Therefore, visitors on foot will be able to walk along the avenue affected by the construction site, passing on the floor adjacent to the tanks of the Via dell’acqua or under the tree-lined path. Shuttles, golf carts, bicycles and people with wheelchairs, in the segment affected by the construction site, will have to pass along the opposite avenue which will, in that section, be two-way.
In the meantime, we are proceeding with the construction of a hedge to divide the Flora gardens from the rest of the complex in order to return this space to external use, but always through a project approved in the context of the participatory valorization tenders. By the summer, however, the greenhouses will also be reopened, where there will also be sales points for the plants that will be grown there.
