WALL ON VIA CARDUCCI
In 1909, during the urbanisation works on the northernmost part of the Quirinal, new roads were laid out and the original Villa Spithover demolished. This rested on a long ancient terracing wall with an roughly north-south orientation, clearly visible in the photos of the time, made of grey granular tuff blocks (cappellaccio), with underlying Roman concrete wall partitions.
The construction of the new Via Carducci led to the removal of the ancient wall. There are two remaining fragments of it, each about 11 metres long, visible today on the sides of the road, just after the junction with Via Piemonte. To the north, the masonry is preserved in a room under the palace, while to the south the section on the street rests on a modern brick base, and then continues under a kind of porticoed loggia created in the corner of the building between Via Carducci and Via Salandra. On the lintel of this portico is the inscription ‘QUAE URBEM SERVAVERUNT, HIC MOENIA SERVANTUR’ (“Here are the walls that have preserved the city”).
According to the information published at the time of the works, the wall section was originally over 35 metres long and an average height of 3.30 metres, with nine horizontal rows of tuff blocks. On the west façade, which forms the exterior of the wall, the wall is recessed to form a scarp that was meant to reinforce the terracing function of the wall itself.
Traditionally, the presence of the cappellaccio blocks would make this section of wall attributable to the oldest phase of fortification, the 6th century BC, but there are serious doubts as to its actual dating.
2. Wall face in grey granular tuff blocks on the south side of Via Carducci
3. Corner of Via Carducci and Via Salandra: portico above the wall section