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Horrea Galbae

Ancient Roman buildings and structures in RomeAncient Roman potteryBuildings and structures completed in the 1st century BCGalbaRome R. XX Testaccio
Tomba di galba
Tomba di galba

The Horrea Galbae were warehouses (horrea) in the southern part of ancient Rome, located between the southern end of the Aventine Hill and the waste dump of Monte Testaccio. They ran for a substantial distance, possibly extending as far as the Porta Ostiensis in the east and the Porticus Aemilia on the banks of the Tiber. The horrea were most likely built on the site of a suburban villa owned by the Sulpicii Galbae, a distinguished noble family of whom the 1st century AD Roman Emperor Galba was a member. (There are many alternative spellings of the name: Galbana, Galbiana, Galbes and so on.)The tomb of Servius Sulpicius Galba (probably the consul of 108 BC, rather than his better-known father of the same name) stood in front of the warehouse complex. It is not clear when the horrea were founded, but presumably it was some time after the tomb was built. The complex was probably originally known as the Horrea Sulpicia, after the nomen of the gens Sulpicia, but acquired its later name during the time of the emperor Galba.Archaeological excavations and the remains of the Forma Urbis Romae show that the Horrea Galbae comprised three long rectangular courtyards set out in parallel, each surrounded by colonnades or arcades of tabernae, with a single entrance positioned on the axis at a short end. They were used to store the annona publica (the public grain supply) as well as olive oil, wine, foodstuffs, clothing and even marble. The size of the Horrea Galbae was enormous, even by modern standards; the horrea contained 140 rooms on the ground floor alone, covering an area of some 225,000 square feet (21,000 m2).It is thought that Monte Testaccio, the giant mound of broken amphorae that lay behind the Horrea Galbae, was associated with the complex. Olive oil imported from far-away Baetica (in modern Spain) was emptied into bulk containers, probably in the horrea, and the original import vessels were smashed and dumped on Monte Testaccio. The scale of the imports can be judged by the fact that Monte Testaccio is estimated to contain the remains of at least 53 million olive oil amphorae, in which some 6 billion litres (1.58 billion gallons) of oil were imported.Little now remains of the Horrea Galbae. Walls and brickwork, dating probably from the 1st century AD, have been discovered by archaeologists along with large lead pipes bearing inscriptions from Hadrian's reign in the following century.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Horrea Galbae (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Horrea Galbae
Via Giovanni Battista Bodoni, Rome Municipio Roma I

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N 41.879444444444 ° E 12.475277777778 °
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Via Giovanni Battista Bodoni
00153 Rome, Municipio Roma I
Lazio, Italy
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Tomba di galba
Tomba di galba
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Santa Maria del Priorato Church
Santa Maria del Priorato Church

The Church of St. Mary of the Priory (Italian: Chiesa di Santa Maria del Priorato), also known as St. Mary on the Aventine (Italian: Santa Maria in Aventino), is the monastery church of the Priory of the Knights of Malta on the Aventine Hill in Rome, and is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first church on this site was built in 939, when Odo of Cluny was given the Roman palace of Alberic II of Spoleto, which was then converted into a Cluniac Benedictine monastery. When the monastery was dissolved in the 14th-century, the site was acquired by the Knights of Malta, who had the church rebuilt in the 1550s. In 1760, the papal nephew and Grand Prior of the Knights, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Rezzonico, sought to improve the appearance of the buildings. On a limited budget, the church was substantially renovated between 1764-66 according to the designs of Giovanni Battista Piranesi. It is his only architectural work. According to a 2019 account, he "consolidated the structure of the 16th-century church and raised the side walls...restored the vault and designed the decoration for its new aspect". Piranesi also designed the piazza in front of the church, the Piazza dei Cavaliere di Malta. The fairly low wall around the piazza is articulated by panels with paired obelisks with stelae positioned between them. The church facade has paired fluted pilasters towards its edges to infer a temple front. The vertical linearity of the fluted pilasters act as a foil to enhance the more decorative reliefs of the facade. The reliefs on this facade, the entrance gate and the panels and stellae in the piazza include emblems and other references to the military and naval associations of the Knights of Malta and the Rezzonico family heraldry. The way in which they are represented indicates Piranesi's fascination with Rome's ancient past as they allude to motifs from Ancient Rome and Etruria.Piranesi's decoration of the church interior culminates in the very sculptural main altar. The church contains Piranesi's tomb and that of Bartolomeo Carafa (died 1405) designed by Paolo Romano. The Grand Priory of Rome (a division Knights of Malta) with support from the Fondazione Roma finances the restoration of both the interior and exterior that lasted from 2015 to 2019.