Hacker News Reader

Comment by zip1234 | Hacker News Reader

In Rome I can think of one church (San Clemente Basilica) that was built on top of a pagan temple, which then had another church built on top of it, which then had the current church built on top of it. You can in fact tour all levels of it. Much of ancient Rome lies at a lower level than the current city, so those buildings are now basements or buried. In many cases that is what happened, not wholesale knocking down of the old buildings.

View on HN

Here's a great blog post about San Clemente https://www.exurbe.com/the-shape-of-rome/ (in which Freud battles his vertigo...)

This is a great post about a whole deal more than just San Clemente.

It could almost be called a “brief” history of Rome.

But then, maybe San Clementes history IS the history of Rome.

I've heard of buildings built on top of others before. Is it commonly because the buildings have actually sunk into the ground or are they somehow pushed?

It’s apparently called sediment accumulation.

If you can suffer through Quora, some answers there:

- https://www.quora.com/How-were-ancient-cities-built-on-top-o...

- https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-ground-level-of-Ancient-Rom...

In many cases that is what happened, not wholesale knocking down of the old buildings.

In many cases, that's much of Paris, too - including underneath Notre Dame.

Yes, there's a museum across the plaza from Notre Dame that showcases the subterranean Roman ruins.

http://www.crypte.paris.fr/en/crypt

That church is pretty cool and and pretty hidden, up on the hill behind the colosseum right ?

Yes, it is very close but still not completely overwhelmed with tourists as the Colosseum is.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com