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The Great Trapeze

by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

The great suterranean Villa Adriana's parking place with 262 mangers for the animals and place for their carts

The Great Trapeze

After having left on its eastern side the exit of the carriages subterranean road leading to the Inferi’s valley, this subway entered a system of 4 imposing galleries set on a trapezoidal plan and taking light and air by large 3 m openings cut in their vault. The eastern one, which was also the longest, measured 304 m while the western one was 296. The two galleries on the north and the south of the trapeze were 140 m the northern one and 100 m the southern. By the author of this book this system was called the Grande Trapezio.
Notwithstanding the straight, well lighted large galleries (5 m large 5 m high) the Grande Trapezio had always been considered to be a representation of the reign of Pluto and Proserpina and still in 1969, at the beginning of this study, it was declared the image of the after life place. An accurate investigation didn’t find any element that could confirm these assertions, but it brought to the attention of the author of this book over a series of well evident cavities cuts in the outer side of the eastern gallery and in the inside wall of the western one. They emerged from the bed of mould on which the mushroom growers, who had rented the place, exploited their activity. Some of these cavities were cm 20 large 20 high, and 20 deep, and they began 140 m after the northern part of the long galleries. After this they repeated themselves every 2.50 m of distance one from the other, and went up till the end. In addition to them in each gallery there existed a series of 132 vertical cuts large 2-3 cm and 30 cm high. The first 80 ones were set at 80-90 cm the one from the others, while the last 51 were distanced 130 cm. One of the fact that was immediately noted was that they were present only on one side of the galleries, thus the artifact of which they were part must have been set along this side.
At this moment the author of this research ignored at what depth the floor of the gallery was, neither did she knew what these artifacts could have been. It was only some time before she realized that they were the elements of a stable with all its mangers. The Neubauentwurflehre, a splendid, also if quite old architecture hand-book, gave the measures: thus we learned that 70 cm down we would find the floor; that at 40 cm from the wall the cavity where the vertical pole supporting the mangers woud have ben fixed, and so on. A 70 cm wide trench confirmed it. Now everything was clear: the Great Trapeze was a monumental parking place where, having arrived with all the fresh supplies for Villa Adriana daily life, and discharged them at the right places, the caravans of carts reached the Great Trapeze. There the carters detached the animals, parked the vehicles in the first 140 m of the gallery, and led the animals to their mangers where, while the carriages of friends and dignitaries circulated freely in the complex, they had to wait all day because the galleries of the great subterranean carriages road where only 2.30 m large, and so were one way.
Then from the Great Trapeze departed galleries connecting it with nearby places. One, only 1.50 m wide, was set at the southern extremity of the eastern gallery. It was quite narrow and thus was probably used only by workers or asses. It led to a large “pozzolana” quarry formed by a maze of winding tunnel which, from time to time, entered in vast cavities, and at last, having crossed all the hill emerged in the Tempe valley.
A large gallery, 3.60 wide and 3 m high, opened itself at the extreme N-W end of the Great Trapeze. It led to the Academy garden near one of the palace’s door However this opening had not been part of the original plan: as a matter of fact we could see that it broke a considerable part of the beautiful Nymphaeum set at the eastern side of the Academy. If, as it is highly probable, the luxurious Academy had been made to host Sabina, this gallery could have been made in 135-136 A.D., when, coming back to Italy from Hadrian second journey, the empress, who died in 136, was already quite ill and the emperor decided to open this passage to make easier for her to reach the Academy.
Going now from here toward South there were two other opening on the western side of the West gallery. The first one was a very narrow one 1.50 m wide and 3 m high. It reached the Academy kitchens and the servants area. Thus it was probably used to bring fresh supplies for meals.
A little more south we find a medium sized gallery 2.50 m wide which went to the Odeon. As usual, friends of the emperor coming by carriage to see the shows, left their vehicle in the western gallery where their coachmen, after having detached the animals and parked the vehicles in the first 140 m of the gallery, led the animals to their mangers. In the meantime their masters entered a system of three parallel tunnels running under the Odeon and, through the stairs starting from the middle one, climbed to the orchestra, and from there reached their places.
At the end of the Great Trapeze arm and at its extreme S-W corner started a last gallery, which, up to our days had been buried by the soil and therefore it had never before been noticed by anyone. Now, it had been uncovered by the mushroom grower works, and we could see it emerging from the mould. It was directed to the Lyceum and on the surface some of the cuts bringing light and air to the tunnel where still evident.


Bibliography
E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI : Villa Adriana il sogna di un imperatore
E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI - Criptoportici e gallerie sotterranee di Villa Adriana in Melanges de l'École Française de Rome, 14, Rome 1973, pp. 237-294, figg; 4-7, Tavv. I-XII.