Rome's Colosseum reopens after extensive restoration

Rome’s famed Colosseum reopened today, after an expansive restoration project which has brought new elements of the two 2,000-year-old structure to light for the first time.

This can be a second phase of a wider $30 million restoration project that started in 2013 and is funded by Italian fashion house Tod’s Group. The initiative started out with a restoration of the external facade of the Colosseum, that was completed in 2016.

Phase two was initiated 2018 and centered on the Colosseum’s hypogea - the underground passages, cages and rooms where prisoners, animals and gladiators waited, or were kept, before they entered the arena above.

The project involved a lot more than 80 people, including archaeologists, restorers, architects, engineers, surveyors and construction workers, who renovated the 15,000-square-metre space and established a fresh 160 metre walkway that opens the hypogea up to visitors for the very first time. After 781 days of construction and a lot more than 55,000 hours of works, the hypogea, which was invisible to spectators even in the Colosseum’s hey day, is currently on show.

The Colosseum, that could once accommodate between 50,000 and 75,000 spectators, was built with a number of technological devices that moved men, animals and stage equipment up to the arena. Among the devices dating back to the Flavian age, it really is still possible to see where in fact the elevators were housed in the corridors of the hypogea.

"This is about important pieces for Italy, monuments that are well-known worldwide, and tourism, which isn't only entertainment but a crucial business in Italy which, if cared for properly, does not have any rival all over the world,” said Tod's Chairman Diego Della Valle.

Della Valle, who also helps fund Milan's La Scala opera house, called on fellow entrepreneurs to "have a monument each, restore it, let’s be quick".

Next on the agenda is the restoration of the galleries of the Colosseum’s “second order”. And, finally, the monument’s visitor centre will be relocated and moved to the outer area of the Colosseum, allowing visitors to access it more comfortably.

In another initiative, the Italian government has made a decision to supply the ancient Roman landmark with new hi-tech flooring, which is likely to maintain place by 2023.

The largest amphitheatre in the Roman Empire, the Colosseum welcomed 7.6 million visitors in 2019.