PhD Lopez Garcia Antonio

Beyond the Tiber: Socio-cultural transformation and urban adaptation of the Trans Tiberim area in Rome from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Tieteellinen tutkimus / siihen pohjautuva työ | Kaksivuotinen

How quickly can a city of one million people be transformed into a semi-rural cityscape? The urban environment of Rome during late antiquity and the Middle Ages has traditionally been interpreted as a crisis of the urban form caused by the rapid degradation of public and private buildings. The highly urbanised and interconnected city of Rome suffered the effects of demographic and climate crises when economic collapse, political conflicts, invasions, floods, earthquakes and pandemics forever changed the urban environment. This period of crisis led to a process of habitat contraction that resulted in the emergence of a vast uninhabited area inside the city walls. It is estimated that one million people lived in the vibrant city of Rome at the end of the 4th century. By the mid-6th century, the population had decreased to a few tens of thousands of inhabitants, converting most of the city into a semi-urban environment. This project provides insight into the landscape of Trastevere, one of the main districts of Rome. Trastevere is a bounded area between the west bank of the Tiber River and the city walls that has been inhabited for more than two millennia. This fact makes it a unique space to investigate urban adaptation and social development along the boundaries between the city and the countryside. This project aims to reconstruct the effects of the shifting socio-cultural dynamics on the transformation of the quarter. This will be the first interdisciplinary, long-term analysis of the quarter and its urban adaptation. It will produce a profound reinterpretation of the factors driving urban change in Rome by examining patterns of settlement, adaptation and abandonment. Understanding these dynamics will spearhead a new interpretation of how cities change in critical moments.