The Coliseum, Oh you should see the Colosseum,
Spaniard. 50,000 Romans watching, every movement of
your sword, willing you to make that killer blow. The silence of before you strike, and the
noise afterwards, It rises... It rises up like... Like... Like a storm As if you were the thunder god himself. The Colosseum is one of the most famous buildings
in the world. It is one of the greatest tourist attractions
in Rome. It is a building that has captured the attention
of painters over the years, and yet in terms of landmarks, never has there been a landmark
that is so associated with blood and squalor as the colosseum. It was huge, it had room for more than 50,000
spectators, it had 76 numbered entrance doors and it was used for more than 700 years. This building was started by the Emperor Vespasian,
the first emperor of the Flavian dynasty, then he died and his son Titus finished the
building in the year 80. Here is Nero's site plan. Something very important about this building
is where it was located, which shows us how incredibly shrewd Emperor Vespasian was in
earning the acceptance of the people. He decided to destroy Nero's Domus Aurea despite
the fact that it was an architectural wonder full of ornamentation with revolving ceilings,
made by these great architects and artists which would have been a great place for him
and for his dynasty to live in, but he decided to raise it to the ground for political reasons
to discredit Nero and hope to gain favor with the people. What he did wisely was to give this property
back to the Roman people and do something that they would like to have in their city,
so he decides to dry up the artificial lake that Nero had built and right in the middle
of that area he builds the Colosseum and the message is clear: what did the Roman people
want more than anything else? They wanted a huge amphitheater where 50,000
of them could enter and spectate gladiatorial combats with wild animals, there's no better
way to gain favor with the citizens than to build something like this, and even better
to build it on top of the pleasurable artificial lake of Nero built just for himself, by the
way they were called gladiators because the Latin word for sword is "gladius" therefore,
"gladiator" one who carries the sword. The original name of the Colosseum was actually
the Flavian Amphitheater named after the family of emperors Flavius, but in the Middle Ages
it became to be known colloquially as the Colosseum not because of its colossal scale
but because of the colossus, the enormous statue of Nero that stood nearby made by the
Greek architect Zenodorus, with a height of more than 30 meters, and the other thing that
Vespasian did was erase the features of Nero from the statue to turn it into a statue of
Sol, the sun god. His face was fixed to resemble Sol, and not
Nero. Seeing how Greek types are transformed into
Roman architecture it is a theme that constantly returns to this notion of different technologies,
different ideas of urban space, different ideas of interior design, and to understand
the shape of the Colosseum, it is necessary to see what the Greek theaters were like. Here we're looking at the Greek theater of
Epidaurus, and like many Greek sites it's all about revealing a landscape, a panorama,
sacred mountains in the distance, and a truly clear geometry, which makes you understand
that you're in a specific place. There would have been a stage and a wall behind
called proscenium, which was low enough so that if you were sitting in the steps you
could see the stage but you could also see the landscape behind. This is the theater of Merida in Spain. Typologically it preserves many of the things
that we saw in the Greek example such as the circle with the steps, but the proscenium
completely closes the space. Also instead of being an object introduced
into the landscape, where the natural slope of a mountain begins to give geometry to the
place, it is an architectural construction. Another one of these megastructures that the
Romans have no problems building with their concrete arches, and since it is a freestanding
structure it can be placed right in the middle of the city. The Colosseum uses the same scheme as the
Marcellus Theater in Rome. Typologically a Greek theater is open giving
you a view of the stage and the landscape. The Romans are always transforming and playing
with typologies, always creating hybrids. This results in the amphitheater type of arena. Essentially they are two theaters that were
put together, but with a very different presence than the Greek theater gently placed in the
landscape, it becomes a giant object in the city of Rome slammed into other elements that
organize themselves. The ancient Roman Forum and the rest of the
city are arranged around it. This view gives us an idea of how the building
is shaped, it was essentially built with barrel vaults running and ramps, and a series of
annular vaults that provided lateral circulation, and that are buttressed by the thrust of the
seating. This is the hallway in the first floor of
the Colosseum, which of course is made of concrete, these annular vaults rest on large
travertine piers. That is the first floor, on the second floor,
however, we see something completely innovative, and it is the introduction of a new vault
form never seen before, this is called the groin vault, and you get it when you take
two barrel vaults and make them intersect, the angles that you get create this type of
vault. They become very popular, once they begin
to be used in the Colosseum we will see the proliferation of groin vaults from this moment
on. Unfortunately, it seems to be quite stripped
bare, but it is important to know that it was also highly decorated, like so many other
Roman buildings. The entire surface was covered with stucco
a later with figurative decoration and painting, both the vaults themselves and the corridors
all very elaborately decorated in ancient Roman times. Something very apparent about the interior
of the Colosseum is that it was built of concrete faced with red brick, an important part of
Nero's architectural revolution was the fact that they began to build the concrete buildings
lined with brick, that had to do with brick being more fireproof than stone, and they
began to use it. It's an important facet of Nero's architectural
revolution that was not lost with his death. The exterior of the building is quite well
preserved, the Colosseum had four levels, the structure itself is made of concrete,
the facing is travertine, an Italian stone from the Tivoli region. We see these large arcades and these columns
that are placed between the arches. This is the building that tells us exactly
what the Greek orders meant to the Romans. The Greek orders are a system of measurements
and ornaments that has the columns and their architraves. There are three Greek orders, the Doric which
is the simplest, the Ionic which is the one with the volutes in the capital, and the Corinthian
which is the one with acanthus leaves. The Greeks used the orders according to the
type of building. When you build a building based on the arch,
you have no structural need for columns, the arches are supported by thick piers, and you
can see it here where the columns of the Colosseum are only in the façade, on the right side
only the arches with their piers remain and you can see that the act of removing the columns
from the front does not make the building collapse, it holds up perfectly. If you remove the columns from the Parthenon
or any Greek temple, it will collapse, if you remove the columns from many Roman buildings,
they will not collapse. So why do the Romans continue to use Greek
columns if they are constructing buildings whose structural system does not require columns? This is the great contribution that the Romans
made to western architecture, transforming the Greek orders into something purely ornamental. In the world view of much of the modern architecture
that is a terrible thing to say: transforming a structural element into something merely
ornamental, but the Romans didn't think they were doing something merely ornamental, rather
they were not only paying homage to the Greeks but also recognizing that the Greeks had created
a language based in these columns, and this language is something that existed apart from
the structure of the building, that was spoke was not the structure of the building, but
the forms in which the structure was created, in this case it was the orders. So the Romans took these columns and their
entablatures, the entire order, and put it in front of the building. They take the idea that Vitruvius gives us
that there is a certain hierarchy in the orders: the Doric symbolizes strength and heroism,
it was associated with a masculine form, the Ionic is more slender, and it was associated
with the form of a mature woman, and the Corinthian, it was the most delicate order representing
a maiden, and in the case of the Colosseum the Romans arranged these columns in this
order: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian. Actually, the ones at the bottom are Tuscan
columns, a variation of the Doric that the Romans inherited from the Etruscans. The job of the orders in the Colosseum is
to mention the relationships of the proportions, or in the words of Vitruvius, it's all about
"ratio venustatis" the sense of beauty, you just have to pay attention to the stacking
of the orders because the Colosseum becomes an important precedent for architects as they
move to new types of buildings. And so, wherever we see any building with
arches and piers and then the column that is superimposed in front of the pier we call
it the motif of the Colosseum which was very used in the Renaissance. The Colosseum was not the first building to
do this, but it is the most famous and the most obvious to do so. And there is one more thing, in the attic
of the Colosseum we have what we call a pilaster, which is a flat representation in relief of
a classical column attached to a wall, it is a substitute for a column, it has a base,
a shaft, and a capital, and it carries an entire entablature, just like a column would. The Greeks did not use pilasters but something
called "anta". Normally in Greece there were piers in front
of a temple that were actually structural. In this particular temple called Thracyllos
the pillars are given column capitals and that can be considered as the birth of the
pilaster, which was used by the Romans every now and then but in the Italian Renaissance
it was employed all the time. At the top of the Colosseum you can see the
detail of the pilasters, and among them travertine blocks that protrude from the wall, they were
used to support the wooden poles that supported the awning that was used to protect the spectators
from the sun and rain, this awning was called velarium. The interior on the other hand is not as well
preserved as the exterior, however, its ruins tell us a lot. Looking down we can see the elliptical shape
of the arena, here we can see the substructures all made of concrete, the ones that are below
the arena itself were used for the storage of props, but also for the housing of animals
that were brought up for animal combat. They had a system of ramps and pulleys and
they took the animals either up the ramps or by pulley from these cages. This is how the amphitheater seats were divided:
the entire part where the seats rest is called cavea, and each of these sections designated
for the different entrances to the Colosseum is called cuneus. They were divided into different sections
where different social classes sat. At the bottom almost at the level of the arena
the senators and the upper class, in the middle the ordinary citizens, and at the top were
women and slaves. Even more striking is the fact that although
the concrete substructures for the seats on which the cavea rested can be seen only a
single cuneus remains with a small number of marble seats. All the seats were sheathed in marble in ancient
times. The reason why only one cuneus is preserved
is because the Colosseum was used as a marble quarry during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
by the popes. The popes did not hesitate to plunder the
Colosseum for the marble they needed for the buildings they were erecting around Rome. The marble of the Colosseum ended up in some
extraordinary buildings so it was not in vain, but at the same time it obviously changed
the face of the interior of the Colosseum forever. This is a restored view on how the interior
of the Colosseum would have looked in ancient times when a gladiatorial performance was
taking place. They covered the arena with artificial grass,
they planted trees, and made props that took the shapes of mountains, and then the gladiators
and the animals. You can also see the seats the, cavea, the
wedge-shaped sections of those seats the cunei, 50,000 people packed for this special event
and then at the top you see the velarium. These are coins that show the Colosseum in
the third century we see the building with an event inside and with those poles that
supported the Valarium. We also see the Colossus, the statue of Nero
that was clearly still standing. It is also thanks to these coins that we know
that under each arch of the second and third levels there were statues in the Colosseum. The substructures are very poorly preserved,
but this is another amphitheater in southern Italy, in a place near Naples called Pozzuoli,
where the substructures are well preserved and you can get a better idea of what they
would have looked like in ancient times. There are annular vaulted corridors down below,
they are well preserved as are the cages in which the animals were kept. And here you see the very well preserved arena
pavement made of concrete, with those openings in it. These are the openings through which the props
and the animals were brought up. This is a page from Le Corbusier's book "Toward
an Architecture". This is Le Corbusier talking about the Colosseum,
talking about a triumphal arch, and talking about a pyramid, all on the same page. How can the Colosseum, a triumphal arch and
a pyramid be related? And Le Corbusier is certainly not talking
about history, he's talking about something extra historical, something about the physical
nature of these buildings: they are huge, they are very big, and when you put a strong
mediterranean light in them you get a powerful play of light and shade. They look like platonic solids, the pyramid
is a simple geometric shape, this is an architect escaping from everything unnecessary and doing
something powerful and elemental and platonic, and the same is true for the Colosseum, it
is a cylinder. We have been admiring the articulation of
the wall, but in another level it is this basic cylindrical mass bathed in light. When we take a look at the triumphal arch,
at some fundamental level it is a rectilinear slab, casting a shadow and bathed in light. And in fact Le Corbusier has this image as
the cover in his treatise in cities. A drawing of Rome that doesn't seem to be
interested in expressing perspective of how it is seen from a point of view. Instead he's calling out all of these objects:
a mausoleum, the pyramid of Gaius Cestius, the Colosseum, these elemental solids that
give character to the city. We all know what happened inside the amphitheaters,
it was the propaganda machine to subjugate and delight at the same time the people of
Rome, so there would be entertainment, the concept of bread and circus was one way in
which the Roman emperors maintained the support of the people. You make sure that they are fed and entertained. So there would be all kinds of activities
in the Colosseum like gladiator fights and wild animals, you could flood it and reenact
naval battles there would be a lot of astonishing entertainments. In the year 81 it was the inauguration of
the Colosseum that lasted a hundred days in which 9,000 animals were killed. In the 400 years in which the Colosseum was
the Roman entertainment center 400,000 men and 1 million beasts were killed. The Colosseum remained almost intact until
the 6th century and it suffered the greatest damages from earthquakes in 847 and 1231. I hope you enjoyed the video and learned from
it. I would very much appreciate if you give me
a like and subscribe to my channel, and if you feel like helping me a little more I just
started a new Patreon page so any contribution will go to the making of better videos. Don't forget to follow me on Facebook and
Instagram. All the links are in the description box below
I'll be posting a lot of new and exciting videos very soon so stay tuned. Thank you again, and I'll see you next time. Goodbye.
