At the Colosseum, New Marble Slabs Mark Where Towering Columns Stood Thousands of Years Ago

Crowds once mingled below two tall arcades supported by 164-foot-tall columns. But due to earthquakes and unstable foundations, these architectural elements collapsed long ago

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

March 20, 2026

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Thousands of years ago, crowds gathered at the Colosseum in Rome to watch gladiator battles and other grisly spectacles. Now, 21st-century visitors will get a better sense of how ancient audiences experienced the amphitheater, which was built in the first century C.E.

This month, architects finished a years-long effort to evoke the long-lost columns that once stood outside the structure’s walls. Visitors to the Colosseum will see a piazza featuring short slabs of travertine marble, positioned where the columns once towered.

The project brings the history of the Flavian amphitheater’s southern side into focus. Spectators once gathered outside its exterior wall before making their way to their seats. They were shielded from the Roman sun by two tall arcades supported by massive columns, each stretching up to 164 feet tall. Eventually, crowds would pass through these arches and follow markers that led them to their sections.

But over the years, earthquakes and unsteady ground caused the arcades and columns to collapse. Working in collaboration with archaeologists, architects aimed to give contemporary visitors a sense of what these crowds may have experienced.

“These blocks of travertine marble are ... located exactly where the pillars, the original pillars, were based,” Italian architect Stefano Boeri, who designed the piazza, tells the Associated Press’ Trisha Thomas. “The idea we had was to give back to the public the perception of the proportion of the arcades and the proportion of the vaults of the arches that were used to enter in the center of the Colosseum.”

The newly installed slabs are made from travertine marble sourced from the same quarries that supplied materials for the construction of the original Colosseum. Visitors today can rest on these slabs, which are located beside engravings of numerals designating seat sections.

“This has been a collective effort enriched by a variety of contributions from archaeologists, researchers, architects and technical partners. The project aims to offer the city, the international community and visitors a new piazza and a close-up viewpoint: a completely novel way to engage with the monument and its history,” says architect Giorgio Donà in a statement.

Boeri envisions the slabs as a place for visitors to rest, according to Artribune. He sees the project as a way to create a new public space connected to the Colosseum without altering any of its original features.

These efforts coincided with the controversial construction of two new subway stations beneath the historic site. Compensatory funds from the metro paid for the project, officials tell the AP.

“Rome is the most difficult city in the world in which to build a subway,” Marco Cervone, construction manager at the two new stations, explained to the New York Times’ Elisabetta Povoledo in December. “It’s not just what’s underneath that’s important; it’s also what’s on top.”

Ahead of construction, archaeologists carefully excavated the sites where the new stations were built. Now, riders can see some of these discoveries on display at the subway stations, including the remains of military barracks, a thermal bath and 28 ancient wells.

Christian Thorsberg | Read More

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.