Piazza di Termini: Recent History
 |
|
 |
1901:
The unveiling on February 10 of the "Naiads" of Mario Rutelli, a controversial new sculptural decoration for the fountain of the Aqua Martia, touched off a public furor. On this occasion, the construction of the first half of the north building was almost complete, while the section facing the Grand Hotel was just underway (fig. 25: Trenkler photograph, Leipzig).
1960:
The "Massimiliano Massimo" College was transferred to a new home in EUR. Its former home in the Baths of Diocletian then suffered a long period of abandonment, during which the roof of one wing of the courtyard collapsed (1975).
1983:
The State acquired the Palazzo Massimo at the Baths and designated it part of the Museo Nazionale Romano. Its prolonged reconstruction was finished in 1992; museum displays are now in final preparation.
1988:
The north building of the exedra received a complete cleaning and successful "facelift." Its southern "twin" is still in need of analogous and identical conservation.
1991:
The rotunda of the Baths of Diocletian, known as the "Sala della Minerva," had, since 1928, served successively as a planetarium and a cinematography studio. After a challenging campaign of restoration, it was refitted as a gallery for Museo Nazionale Romano sculptures found in the Baths and reopened to the public.
figs. 26-27: Two aerial views of the modern Piazza dei Cinquecento and Piazza della Repubblica; ca. 1920 (Min. BBCCAAA, Aereofototeca) and ca. 1960.
figs. 28-29: Two views of the fountain of the exedra, looking toward the railroad station; ca. 1890 (Richter photograph, Rome) and 1939 (Richter, Rome).
