LECCE – Guided tours continue in the Rudiae archaeological park in Lecce: Saturday 25th at 5pm and Sunday 26th May at 11am (entrance 8/6 euros) the public will be accompanied to discover the first Messapian (7th century BC) and then Roman city (3rd century BC), known above all for being the birthplace of the father of Latin literature Quintus Ennius (239-169 BC). Saturday 1 June (entrance 10/8 euros) at the end of the usual guided tour by the archaeologists of the Park, the Legio VIII Avgvsta Salento APS which will march inside the Amphitheater preceded by the Roman senators. For this occasion the Sacramentum will be staged, the ceremony of the passage of the Tyrones, the recruits, to the rank of milites, the legionaries. Sunday 2 June, for the Italian Republic Day, double round of visits at 11:00 and 17:30. From 8 June to 31 August the new timetable will be active with visits every Saturday and Sunday at 6.30pm (entrance 8/6 euros).
The archaeological excavations, which began in the second half of the nineteenth century thanks to Duke Sigismondo Castromediano under the direction of Luigi De Simone, have brought to light areas of necropolis, underground tombs dug into the rock, portions of the Messapic fortifications, as well as sections of paved roads , places of worship and public buildings from the Roman era. At the center of the settlement is the Roman Amphitheatre, built during the reign of Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD) and recently brought to light. In fact, Lecce can boast two Roman amphitheaters just a few kilometers away: that of Lupiae in Piazza Sant’Oronzo, in the heart of the city, and that of ancient Rudiae, in the countryside on the outskirts of the Salento capital on the road to San Pietro in Lama . During the visits, the figure of Otacilia Secundilla will also be remembered, a young Roman woman who lived two thousand years ago who, with her philanthropic work, donated her savings for the construction of the Amphitheatre.
Rudiae is one of the most important archaeological sites in Salento, today accessible thanks to the public-private partnership for the promotion and valorisation stipulated between the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Brindisi and Lecce and ARVa srl - spin off of the University of Salento, also on the basis of a prior agreement between the Superintendence itself and the Municipality of Lecce. Info and reservations Parcoarcheologicorudiae.it.
VISIT
The Rudiae visit route starts from the Fondo Acchiatura area. Here it is possible to visit the archaeological structures brought to light during the old excavations of the 1950s, namely the two orthogonal paved streets, the place of worship and the Hellenistic hypogeum, which cannot be accessed. After visiting the archaeological remains of Fondo Acchiatura, the route continues on the north side where a gap in the dry stone wall allows a fascinating view from above of the amphitheater which is accessed via a flight of steel stairs located in correspondence with the south entrance of the monument; the site is also partially usable for people with motor disabilities, as there is a semi-dirt path along the east side which, via an earth ramp, allows you to descend into the amphitheater from the north entrance. The visit, supported by the virtual tour on tablets and by panels with photos, virtual reconstructions and graphic illustrations, will allow you to discover all the phases of life and monumentalisation of the area, starting from the Messapic Age, when the cistern (lacus) was built for the collection of rainwater, up to the construction of the amphitheater in the early years of the 2nd century. AD, during the reign of Trajan. Subsequently, you go up from the earth ramp and from there you follow the small perimeter road which allows a stupendous view of the western sector, where it is possible to observe the stratification of the structures of the lacus, the amphitheater and the nineteenth-century dry stone wall, embellished by the presence of olive trees. In addition to the archaeological aspects, the site, far from the noise pollution of the city, is characterized by a suggestive silence, interrupted only by the chirping of cicadas, and by the aromas of Mediterranean botanical presences (thyme, white-flowered rocket, orchids, etc.) , capable of developing multiple sensory perceptions.
ARCHEOLOGY IN RUDIAE
Rudiae was described already in the 16th century by Antonio De Ferraris, better known by the name of Galateo, who, in the Liber de Situ Japigiae (1558), was the first to denounce the destruction caused in the archaeological area by agricultural work. The place remained abandoned for a long time and was the subject of sporadic discoveries until the second half of the 19th century, when, with the establishment of the ‘Preservation Commission of Historical Monuments and Fine Arts of Terra d’Otranto’, Duke Sigismondo Castromediano promoted some excavation campaigns directed by Luigi De Simone (1869-1875). The investigations brought to light some hypogea, numerous tombs, figured ceramics of Attic and Italian production and Messapic and Roman epigraphs, which formed the main nucleus of the Provincial Museum of Lecce, established in 1868 at the behest of Castromediano. Between 1957 and 1959, the Superintendency of Antiquities conducted two excavation campaigns in this sector. The investigations conducted in the field by Giovanna Delli Ponti brought to light two Hellenistic hypogea, stretches of paved streets and monumental buildings from the Republican age. In 1970 the area within the limits of the Messapian walls was subjected to archaeological restrictions to promote its protection, without this however leading to a program of systematic investigations. In the mid-1980s the expropriation proposal for Fondo Acchiatura was presented to the Ministry and with the subsequent acquisition the archaeological park of Rudiae was established. Over the last two decades, the topographic investigations carried out by the Laboratory of Ancient Topography and Photogrammetry of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Salento have allowed the preparation of the archaeological map of the site. Starting from 2011, the excavation of the Rudiae amphitheater was carried out, in collaboration between the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Provinces of Brindisi, Lecce and Taranto and the Municipality of Lecce, in an area of the recently acquired Messapian settlement by the municipal administration, thanks to a PRUSST loan. The research brought to light almost entirely the perimeter ring of the monument, the radial corridors (vomitoria) that divided the auditorium into wedges and part of the substructures on which the rows of seats rested. Also in 2011, as part of the valorization project promoted by the Regional Directorate for Cultural and Landscape Heritage of Puglia, excavation tests were conducted in the north-western sector of the Rudiae city walls. The excavations involved a section of the external moat and the mighty Messapian fortification, lined both internally and externally by opus quadratum wall structures with limestone blocks, for a total thickness of approx. 8 m. The excavation of the amphitheater resumed from November 2014 until September 2015, with POIn FESR 2007-2013 funding (Enhancement of cultural attraction areas – Line 1), and allowed the southern half of the building to be brought to light from spectacle up to arena level. Between 2016 and 2017, the new project for the recovery and valorization of the archaeological area of Rudiae, financed with FSC 2007/2013 funds, made it possible to bring the northern sector of the monument to light and to carry out an initial conservative intervention on the wall structures , as well as the in situ repositioning of some blocks. The field activities, with the scientific coordination of Francesco D’Andria, directed by the architects Enrico Ampolo and Roberto Bozza, were carried out by the companies Nicolì SpA (2014-2015) and De Marco SRL-Lithos SRL (2016-2017), with the archaeological assistance of the company Archeologia Ricerca e Valorizzazione SRL (ARVa), a spin-off of the University of Salento.
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