The Roman Colosseum Will Have A New Sophisticated Floor Worth Rp321 Billion

Colosseum in Rome, Italia. (Wikimedia Commons/Jaakko Luttinen)

JAKARTA - If nothing gets in the way, the Ancient Roman Colosseum in Rome, Italy, which is one of the historical remains in the world, will have a new floor through the latest technology.

The floor project plans for the Colosseum were announced by the Italian Ministry of Culture. The goal is to further pamper tourists who come from all over the world.

"This is an extraordinary project," said Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, detailing plans for a flexible floor to give tourists a clearer picture of what the arena would look like as gladiators battled to the death there, as reported by Reuters.

"You will be able to walk on it and go to the center of the Colosseum, see it in the same way visitors used to do until the end of the 19th century," continued Franceschini.

Colosseum Inner View. (Wikimedia Commons/Stefan Bauer)

Previously, the last floor had been removed by archaeologists to have a better view of the maze of rooms and corridors that lay beneath the arena. It was never completely replaced.

An Italian engineering firm, Milan Ingegneria, won a contract worth 18.5 million euros, or around Rp321,024,210,000, to design the new floor and has committed to completing the project by 2023.

The wooden platform will consist of hundreds of slats that can be rotated, to bring natural light to dungeons that were once used to house gladiators and animals before their deadly battles.

The Colosseum is Italy's most popular tourist attraction, attracting an estimated 7.6 million visitors in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic broke out worldwide.

Built 2,000 years ago, the Colosseum is the largest amphitheater in the Roman empire. It used to have up to 70,000 seats and hosted gladiator fights, executions, and animal hunts. Interestingly, the Colosseum can also be filled with water to reenact naval battles.