With the opening of the tram line III between Porta Maggiore and Santa Croce in 1912, the area of the walls along Viale Carlo Felice was used for the construction of the first tram depot, covering an area of 5000 square metres, used by the municipal company (ATM, ATG, ATAG) for the maintenance and storage of vehicles and then as a service station for buses. For almost seventy years, the walls in this long stretch were invisible to the city, hidden by the company’s obtrusive warehouses.
It was only in 1989, following a series of regulatory and prescriptive measures, including the establishment of a 50 m buffer zone along the Aurelian Walls ( Ministerial Decree of 03/06/1986 ex L 1089/1939) and under the auspices of the X AABBAA Department of the Municipality of Rome, that the long negotiation began with the Tramway Company for the relocation of the ATAC facilities to alternative areas to protect the archaeological heritage. This was concluded in 1999-2000 with the demolition of the warehouses and the landscaping of the green belt in the area of the internal pomerium and the modification of the ground level “to recover the integrity of the walls”.
2. ATAC depot along the Aurelian walls on Viale Carlo Felice.