Restoration and enhancement work on the great exedra and underground gallery of the Baths of Trajan at Colle Oppio has been completed, Rome city council announced. The project focused on the upper spaces of the south-western exedra, roughly 30 metres in diameter, and the underground gallery beneath it, which houses two exceptional ancient artworks. The works were carried out under the PNRR-funded Caput Mundi programme.
The Painted City is a fresco of around 10 square metres offering a bird's-eye view of a walled city with towers and buildings shown in perspective. Dating to the first century AD, it belonged to a building that predates the Baths of Trajan. Rome's cultural heritage superintendent, Claudio Parisi Presicce, said the identity of the city depicted remains unknown, though it must have been a well-known one.
