Casa Liberti (ex)

Casa Liberti is a building that wears its history like a geological cross-section, each era stacked imperfectly upon the last. The nineteenth-century masonry structure, roughly squared lava stone blocks and brick partitions, sits partially atop the Roman theatre’s opus coementicium walls, specifically the north-east section of the third ambulatory, dating from around the second century AD. The original floors were metal profiles, pumice and plaster, some resting directly on the Roman vaults. When the intermediate floor was demolished to expose the ancient remains, the wing on Via Teatro greco had to be reinforced with steel: two pairs of HEA 400 beams, supported by similar pillars along the street and by cantilevers tied into the theatre structure on the inner side, in the Sala dell’Esedra. The noble floor’s ceilings are false vaults of plaster and cane, while the roof sits on perimeter curbs with a wooden truss system. A pragmatic, unglamorous palimpsest.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.