Notre Dame Rome partners with Rome’s Superintendence of Cultural Heritage
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Notre Dame Rome, part of the University of Notre Dame’s global network, signed a three-year agreement with Rome’s Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali—or Superintendence of Cultural Heritage—last month.
The agreement allows Notre Dame faculty, undergraduate and graduate students privileged study and research access to some of the city’s most significant historic buildings and cultural artifacts, the university said.
It is part of the foundational course “All Roads Lead to Rome,” taken by all Notre Dame undergraduate students studying in Rome.
“This partnership with such a premier cultural institution in the city is already making possible synergies that were unimaginable before,” Notre Dame Rome Director Silvia Dall’Olio said in a news release Thursday. “The physical proximity on the Celio Hill between Notre Dame’s facilities and the Parco Archeologico strengthens and makes our reciprocal commitment to the neighborhood more visible.”
The Superintendence oversees Rome’s archaeological sites and historic monuments, including the entire perimeter of the city walls that represent the various ages of the city’s urban development.
The first phase of the collaboration includes access to the newly opened Parco Archeologico del Celio, a park overlooking the Colosseum preserving significant archaeological artifacts. The park is one block away from via Ostilia, where Notre Dame Rome and the School of Architecture’s Rome Studies campus is located and hosts the Museo della Forma Urbis.
The university said School of Architecture professors Lorenzo Fei and Paolo Vitti organized a workshop on surveying and digital documentation for Master of Science in Historic Preservation graduate students in August. They explored the fragments of the Forma Urbis using advanced digital tools and techniques for investigating historic heritage.
“The workshop received highly positive feedback from students,” Fei said. “We are already considering organizing it again in future years and exploring new topics to propose to the Parco and hopefully opening up new research opportunities.”
This new museum displays the Forma Urbis Severiana, a marble map of Rome from the third century, as well as numerous epigraphs and other archaeological artifacts. The fragments of the map offer extraordinary insights into the urban landscape of ancient Rome and are superimposed on Giovanni Battista Nolli’s renowned 1748 map of the city.
As part of the collaboration, the Sovrintendenza, the Parco del Celio and Notre Dame Rome are also co-organizing a major international conference to take place in 2026 and working to strengthen the exchange of initiatives.