Before restoration
The restored building
Restored building detail
Via del Corso is one of the most famous and important streets in Roman history, a tourist destination and emblem of the city.
Already present in Roman times, during the imperial period it was uninhabited and characterised by the presence of tombs of illustrious figures, such as Emperors Nero and Augustus.
The street became the centre of attraction for Roman activities and the famous Carnival races in 1467, which were then abolished in the late 19th century.
The races (in Italian, ‘corse’), after which the street, originally called ‘Via Lata’, was named, were particularly popular with the Romans and featured horses and more.
From the 19th century, after the Corso was lit by gas, it became a promenade street with haute couture shops, jewellers and bookshops, taking on the appearance we know today.
Dall’800, dopo che il Corso venne illuminato a gas, divenne una via da passeggio con presenza di negozi di alta moda, gioiellerie e librerie, assumendo l’aspetto che conosciamo oggi.
The restored property, located at 170 Via del Corso in Rome, is for commercial use on the ground floor and residential use on the remaining upper floors.
Before proceeding with the work, Vivenda carried out an analysis of the building’s condition, which revealed signs of various types of degradation of the façade finish and architectural elements, caused by poor maintenance and contact of the material with atmospheric agents.
The survey was also useful in understanding the levels of maintenance work that have been carried out over the years, as well as the identification of the original colours and compositions of the plaster.
With the restoration work, decay was removed and manual surface removal tests were carried out with the use of scalpels to highlight the overlapping of paintings on the main façade, frames and cornices.
The paintings were then cleaned using water systems delivered at moderate pressure in view of the porosity of the material, in order to avoid dangerous absorption that would have embrittled the layers.
In the sub-balconies, the plasterwork was stripped, stripping the structure of its supporting iron brackets to be treated with rust converters. The masonry parts were then reconstructed with structural mortars.
The plaster, on the other hand, was recovered with limited integration and replacement of only the extremely damaged parts for which the bearing capacity of the support was restored.
For the lesions on the travertine slab flooring of the balconies, the impurities accumulated in the cracks were removed and sealed with resins and connecting pins.
The building was then painted with lime paint for outdoor use and coloured natural earths, with the final aim of ensuring the colour effect of the original lime paint.
