Archaeology from above
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A basilica (or rather 3 basilicas on top of each other certainly in different ages). it's about 50-60 metres long!
Anyway, this is the Forum and under the main post office on the other corner (see image) there is a big palace which is suspected to be the governer's residence (it was the seat of the late Roman province of Valeria)
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Thats a Big church! was it discovered recently or it was known that the building was there? and why was it demolished?
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Hehe...
Well there were old buildins on top (deomolition is due to barbarian raids ant TIME) then yes, acheriot (or car?) perk was made on top.
Lately a big (EU wide) insurance company bought the site to build an office building WITH A 3 STOREY UNDERGROUND PARKING SPACE
Poor guys - didn't they know that this is the ancient forum??? (Why not?)
Now they can park in the street - if they can find the space.
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It is amazing to me, that the footprint has survived all this time in an urban area. How old are the adjacent structures? Our city isn't very old, and new construction occasionally reveals burial ground that are considered sacred to the descendants of local natives. Native structures did not have the level of construction found in your location, and within the urban areas, they were previously just demolished. Remnants of burial sites occasionally survive, and today have become political subjects.
How are these problems handled where you live? Are the investments in the project taken as losses by the property owners?
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Well, on top of the Roman town (cca 1st century AD to early 5th century) there is the Medieval town (starting in the 1th century) and continuously onward so every time there is a construction, extensive excavations have to be done.
This is of course financed by the investor (0.9% of the total investment has to go on heritage protection) and if anything valuable is found, it has to be kept - like there won't be a 3 storey underground car park here for sure. But they should've known this before they started.
The very closely neighbouring buildings are from the 70's and 80's but there had been buildings here previously as well.
We have extensive cemeteries a bit north from the Ancient town and those are also part of the UNESCO World Heritage so especially protected.
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Are you permitted to build above the footprint? Who owns the remains? Are the investors required to restore and preserve what is exposed by the archaeologist if the cost extend beyond 0.9%? We have nothing like this where I practice; guess if I practiced in Europe, it would be common to research historical documents before attempting any project. What you said before now makes sense, they should have known. Maybe an investment scam to rob unknowing investors? I have acquaintances who always seem to be looking for ways to profit by taking one set of laws, then applying them in other situations (turning low income housing credits into cash by selling them to developers who need the credits to build their luxury project). Well, thanks for the lesson.
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this is common to happen in Europe, most investors, when building in historic city centers already expect that there might be some kind of archaeological findings, and pray that it isn't anything important.
For example, in Rome any construction project has an Archaeologist constantly on guard on the site to prevent the destruction of any finding.
Unfortunately in my country, as soon as something is found the constructor usually orders it all to be filled with concrete immediately before any one can see it and demand the stop of the work for archaeological surveys do be done. The only ones that will know what happened will be the construction crew who will keep their mouths shut or loose their job, so there are all kind of urban legends (most of them true), guys who found medieval knight armor, or a Moorish treasure of gold coins (this one happens a lot all over the country) or even sunken ships. -
Here there is a quite extenive database of archaeological sites (all over the fields as well, not only in towns) and where there is any trace of any archaeological find (or any historic/architectural monument is involved), the National Heritage Protection Office will issue the building permit, not the township.
Of course they only issue it when there is a contract made betwen the local museum (we hav a Mmuseum system organised by coounties) and the investor to do archaeoloical ecavations firt.
Now when the results (like in this case) reveal that there are serious finds, the investor is forced to change the plans in a way that everything valuable is preserved - or not build at all. This of course is his extra cost.
Now as we exctly know where the Roman and Medieval town is underneath (or actually we still have like 3/4 of the medievel city walls), all this area is regarded as a whole, big, archaeological site. Of coure we cannot move the whole city to build a ghost city by excavating and preserving everything open air and we have to make a balance but what you see above is real find that will prevent the investor (an insurance company) from building underground parking lots.
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Won't putting foundations & footings for the new building wreck the archeological artifacts? You mention they aren't allowed to distroy anything valuable -- in this case wouldn't everything seen in the photo be considered valuable? Looks to me like I should get back to work on my building levitation technology that I've been developing when I have spare time - floating buildings would work well in locations like that.
Regards, Ross
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Hehe...
Well, the can always use some pillars to hold the building of course. In a nearby shopping mall they preserved (and incorporated in the building) a whole big, public Roman bath.
On another project I also worked, the Roman early Christian church was partly under a late Baroque, late 18th - early 19th century, three storey plebendary and chapters building so when we excavated it (and the protection building and visitors' centre was being built), they had to dig down to about 8-10 metres section by section to "undermine" the foundetions and fill it up with concrete.
Well, surely it was a big project; about 13 K cubic metres and € 6 million spent over almost three years.
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