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View Full Version : Huge Roman Gate Gets Huge Restoration

livius drusus
11-20-2005, 07:19 PM
The Market Gate of Miletus (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1230351) in Berlin's Pergamon Museum is in dire need of restoration. It's huge, though, and inside the museum, so they have to be creative.

In the next three weeks, workers will cut a hole in the 75-year-old museum's southern exterior wall. Through it, they will pass 58 of the gate's marble blocks weighing about 110 tons to load them onto flatbed trucks and take them to an offsite facility for restoration.

...

The museum plans to put up a transparent wall that will contain dust and noise but let visitors continue to view the gate. Peter-Klaus Schuster, city museum director, said the unique setup will help make the Pergamon an "academy of restoration work."

One thing I don't get is the article refers to decades-old metal supports sagging, but then all they say is the huge blocks will be taken offsite to be restored. Are the metal supports inside the blocks, like maybe replacements for original Roman ones? If the metal supports are underneath or between the blocks, then surely they need restoration at least as much as the blocks being removed.

It's probably a combination of both and the article just phrased it oddly. Anyway, it's really something, ain't it?

http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00680/00680a.jpg

http://www.berlin-motive.de/berlin/Sehenswuerdigkeiten/Mitte/Museumsinsel/Perganmon/500/pergamon04.jpg
fragment
11-20-2005, 07:31 PM
The Pergamon Museum is fantastic. Not only does it have the Miletus gate, it also has the Ishtar Gate from Babylon and the Pergamon Altar (reconstructed ancient Greek temple). Well worth a visit if you're ever in those parts.
livius drusus
11-20-2005, 07:35 PM
I've seen pictures of the Ishtar Gate and it looks jaw-dropping. I've never been to Berlin, unfortunately, but I would most definitely camp out at the Pergamon if I had the chance.
fragment
11-20-2005, 07:44 PM
/me pleads with Santa for a time machine for Christmas, so he can go back to visit ancient cities
Ymir's blood
11-20-2005, 08:10 PM
Perhaps the sagging metal supports were a stop gap measure which will be made unnecessary after the current work is complete?

ETA, when I first looked at the lower picture, my mind combined the hand position of the nun's hand and the red cordon in the background. I thought for a second the nun had someone on a leash.
livius drusus
11-20-2005, 08:18 PM
Perhaps the sagging metal supports were a stop gap measure which will be made unnecessary after the current work is complete?

That makes sense. They remove the blocks, clean them or do whatever other restoration is needed, then rebuilt the support structure.

ETA, when I first looked at the lower picture, my mind combined the hand position of the nun's hand and the red cordon in the background. I thought for a second the nun had someone on a leash.

:lol: I hadn't seen that before but I sure do now.
viscousmemories
11-20-2005, 08:27 PM
That's really beautiful. I've been to Berlin twice, but it never occurred to me to look around.