The Roman apartment block hidden under the streets

Insula dell’Ara Coeli is one of the few surviving examples of an insula, the type of apartment blocks that many Romans lived in during the 2nd century AD. While earlier researchers assumed it was a four-wing building with an inner courtyard, archaeologist Sascha Priester proposed a new reconstruction. He showed that a south wing cannot be proven and instead reconstructed an alley covered with arches between the west and east buildings.

The ground floor, up to 400 square meters (4,300 sq ft), had a row of shops (tabernae). In the north of the site stood the north building with a staircase, which was filled up again immediately after the excavation. The west building is almost entirely covered by the modern Via del Teatro di Marcello. The east building, now known as the Insula dell’Ara Coeli, is the most visible part of the complex since its rediscovery under an old church during Benito Mussolini's urban renewal plan.

The east building's portico pillars and the west building's traces of arches and corresponding brick pillars served as evidence for the reconstruction of the alley. Four floors remain of the insula romana. The ground floor was shops facing the surrounding streets, with owners using ladders to access the living quarters immediately above. A mezzanine lay above the shop level.

The third floor appears to have been large, spacious apartments, while the fourth floor had a corridor with a series of three-room suites. Archaeologist Andrew Wallace-Hadrill suggested that with a little imagination, these suites are comparable to apartments in which many 21st-century Roman families live. Estimates suggest that the insula romana could host around 380 people.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons