Page 21 - Beyond Decommissioning

2 Beyond Decommissioning

Fig. 1.1 Theatre of Marcellus, Rome, Italy.
Photo by M. Laraia (2007).

upper floors are divided into multiple apartments, and its surroundings are used for
summer concerts (Fig. 1.1).
Elsewhere in Italy there are many sites that have been continuously used for
2000 years. In Catania, Sicily, encompassed by the remains of the city walls from
the time of Emperor Charles V, there stands the church of Saint Agatha in Prison;
according to tradition, it was built over the prison where Saint Agatha was held during
her trial and eventually passed away on 5th February 251 AD. It is possible that the
prison was part of the administrative complex and residence of her prosecutor.
The doorway to the Baroque Church is mediaeval (around 1241) and was originally
part of the facade of the ancient Norman cathedral, rescued from the ruins of the earth-
quake of 1693. It was reinstalled by Gian Battista Vaccarini, who designed and con-
structed the new church in the 18th century. What remains of that edifice today is a
rectangular opening (5.9m 3.65m) to the right of the nave of the church, whose thick
walls (2m) can be justified by their original defensive purpose. In the 1960s another
space was discovered alongside the prison at a level lower than the current floor. This
could be a lower prison reserved for those awaiting the death sentence, or a Christian
or pagan basilica, but it also could be the gladiators’ baths (Fig. 1.2).
Discovered only in 1943, the Naumachie is the remains of an old Roman wall,
130m long, with 18 niches that surrounded the gymnasium (a building for indoor
sports activities). Built in the 1st-century BC, it is the second oldest structure in Taor-
mina, Sicily. The name Naumachie (in Greek “sea battle”) was wrongly given to the
structure after the large water basin found here. However, the basin was not used to