Lupercal Grotto found under Rome?

Remote control camera image of grotto under the Palatine Hill in Rome

OK it’s not a modern folly, in fact it’s an ancient grotto but it’s only just been found and I am so excited I have to include it here.

My favourite follies are artificial grottoes, decorated with shells,  which were “reinvented” during the Renaissance in Italy in the 16th century, as copies of the grottoes of ancient Rome.

Now a new grotto has been found, over 50 feet below the Palatine Hill in Rome which Italian archaeologists cautiously (I assume that is as cautious as Italians ever are) have speculated might be the original grotto built by Romulus or was it Remus as the foundation of their palace on the Palatine Hill.

A camera was lowered into the cave and photographed a crypt shaped ceiling decorated with shells and marble. Now they are looking for the original entrance.

There are early reports that the grotto, together with Nero’s famous frescoes, maybe open to the public next spring. I’ll believe that when I see it but whenever it does open I will be one of the first in line for a viewing.

How Exciting I can’t wait

May-Zee

Here is a press report by Ariel David of the Associated Press Agency:

20th November 2007

Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled an underground grotto believed to have been revered by ancient Romans as the place where a wolf nursed the city’s legendary founder Romulus and his twin brother Remus.

Decorated with seashells and colored marble, the vaulted sanctuary is buried 52 feet inside the Palatine hill, the palatial center of power in imperial Rome, the archaeologists said at a news conference.

In the past two years, experts have been probing the space with endoscopes and laser scanners, fearing that the fragile grotto, already partially caved-in, would not survive a full-scale dig, said Giorgio Croci, an engineer who worked on the site.

The archaeologists are convinced that they have found the place of worship where Romans believed a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god of war Mars who were abandoned in a basket and left adrift on the Tiber.

Thanks to the wolf, a symbol of Rome to this day, the twins survived, and Romulus founded the city, becoming its first king after killing Remus in a power struggle.

Ancient texts say the grotto known as the “Lupercale”_ from “lupa,” Latin for she-wolf — was near the palace of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, who was said to have restored it, and was decorated with a white eagle.

That symbol of the Roman Empire was found atop the sanctuary’s vault, which lies just below the ruins of the palace built by Augustus, said Irene Iacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the Palatine and the nearby Roman Forum.

Augustus, who ruled from the late 1st century B.C. to his death in the year 14, was keen on being close to the places of Rome’s mythical foundation and used the city’s religious traditions to bolster his hold on power, Iacopi said.

“The Lupercale must have had an important role in Augustus’ policies,” she said. “He saw himself as a new Romulus.”

Andrea Carandini, a professor of archaeology at Rome’s La Sapienza University and an expert on the Palatine, said the grotto is almost certainly the “Lupercale.”

“The chances that it’s not are minimal,” said Carandini, who did not take part in the dig. “It’s one of the greatest discoveries ever made.”

Most of the sanctuary is filled with earth, but laser scans allowed experts to estimate that the circular structure has a height of 26 feet and a diameter of 24 feet, Croci said.

Archaeologists at the news conference were divided on how to gain access to the “Lupercale.”

Iacopi said a new dig would start soon to find the grotto’s original entrance at the bottom of the hill. Carandini suggested enlarging the hole at the top through which probes have been lowered so far, saying that burrowing at the base of the hill could disturb the foundations of other ruins.

The Palatine is honeycombed with palaces and other ancient monuments, from the 8th-century B.C. remains of Rome’s first fledgling huts to a medieval fortress and Renaissance villas. But the remains are fragile and plagued by collapses, leaving more than half of the hill, including Augustus’ palace, closed to the public.

Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said the first area to benefit from an extensive, $17.5 million restoration of the hills’ ruins will be Augustus’ palace, scheduled to reopen in February after being closed for decades

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Where Naiads Play on a Surrey Hillside (grotto)

Cherkley Court in Surrey has a new shell grotto by Belinda Eade  

 

Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead in Surrey, was the home of newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook, from 1910-1964. Beaverbrook was a cabinet minister in Churchill’s wartime government and Winston Churchill was a regular visitor to Cherkley. The house, rebuilt after a fire in the 1890s in high Victorian style, sits high on a ridge in the Surrey Hills surrounded by 400 acres of private estate with extensive views.

The house’s interior and the 16 acres of formal pleasure grounds surrounding it have been extensively and painstakingly restored in recent years. The formal gardens have been redesigned by landscape architect Simon Johnson and are now open to the public. On the lower terrace behind the house, overlooking the wooded downs beyond, shell artist Belinda Eade has built a grotto in a vault. 

The new grotto at Cherkley is Belinda’s largest work to date. A team of ten worked on 80 sq metres of walls and ceilings to create a shell grotto inspired by the Greek myth of Arethusa — a chaste water nymph who was transformed into a fountain. Some of the work was done in the studio, the naiads protecting Arethusa, for example, but most of the work had to be done on site and grotto building can be far from glamorous. Site preparation can involve anything from building seats, archways and alcoves to driving steel rods into walls to support huge lumps of stone.

 

In a recent interview in the Times, Belinda discussed her inspiration which varies according to the elements of the project she is working on at the time.

“Sometimes, when I‘m trying to make something very specific ­— an eye or a cheek —­ I have to decide which shell will be right for the job,” she said. “Other times, I‘ll have a pile of materials and they’ll dictate the direction. Tufa and slag have all sorts of incredible bits in them; rough stone is often suggestively figurative. You build them all together and let them dictate the flow.”

Some of the shells are far-fetched and expensive, imported from Japan, Australasia and the South Pacific, but many come from British shores, and would be thrown away if Belinda didn‘t salvage them. Fish markets provide mussels, cockles, scallops, whelks; London restaurants are a rich source of oysters. There was once a vast glasshouse conservatory on the upper terrace (it was destroyed by fire) and some of the coral from there has been reused in the grotto.

Twin garden seat pavilions have been restored and sited at either end of the lower terrace.

sources:
http://property.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,21209-2514354,00.html

http://www.cherkleycourt.com/the_gardens.htm

  

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