A new app created over the
course of 22 years of research by an international team of
academics and international experts will enable users to see the
landmarks of ancient Rome as they were at the peak of the
Eternal City's urban development in 320 AD - from the Colosseum
to the Forum.
'Rome Reborn' will create the illusion of flying over the
Circus Maximus and of entering the Basilica of Maxentius, among
other sites.
"The dream of rebuilding Rome is an ancient one", said the
director of the project, Bernard Frischer, citing Flavio Biondo
and Pirro Ligorio.
Presenting the app together with Nathanael Tavares, the CEO
of Flyover Zone Productions, which has the exclusive license,
said he had the idea of creating it when he saw a model by Italo
Gismondi made between 1935 and 1971.
"I came up with the idea when I first saw it in Rome".
The working committee for this unique and ambitious project
was set up in 1996 and has now completed the largest digital
reconstruction of an ancient city.
Users will have the possibility of accessing over 7,000
monumental buildings over 14 square kilometers inside the
Aurelian Walls, exploring every detail and perspective.
Available in English, Chinese and Italian as an app and for a
personal computer even without 3D visors, Rome Reborn has
already been approved by the Society for Classical Studies and
will debut with the first chapters: the Basilica of Maxentius,
the Imperial Forum and Flight Ancient Rome.
The colosseum and the Pantheon will follow.
"You can fly over some (sites) and walk into others", said
Frischer who received the Pioneer Award and Tartessus for the
project.
His dream is to create 15 to 20 apps in three years:
"Probably in three-four years we will also be able to unite them
all in a unique intensive experience to walk across all of
Rome".
Paolo Liverani, a professor of classical archaeology at the
University of Florence, said: "We will update it with the
progress of studies and technologies".
"I can't remember projects like this one, with 22 years of
work, remade three rimes and with such results - I can't
remember any other like it", he noted.
"And it is also colored, like Rome at the time, and dynamic -
we could, for example, take the same route as Constantine when
he triumphantly walked into Rome".
Rome Reborn also created a community - it is possible to meet
with other users and chat with them along the way (the website
is www.romereborn.org).
Most of all, the app provides an occasion for research.
The director of the Civic Museum of Rieti, Monica De Simone,
said it can be used to learn, "having a strong scientific base".
"We experimented it with youths and families - what is most
striking it the image of the ancient city, which stimulated
everyone to pose questions", she said.
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