The Plan of Rome is a model, more precisely a relief map, of ancient Rome in the 4th century. Made of varnished plaster (11 × 6 m), it represents three-fifths of the city at a 1/400 scale, forming a puzzle of around one hundred pieces. It was created by Paul Bigot, an architect and winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1900. Initially focused on the Circus Maximus, Bigot's work gradually expanded to cover an area of over 70 m2. It has also become a virtual reconstruction project led by the University of Caen since the 1990s.
Bigot developed the model as a synthesis of the literary, archaeological, and iconographic knowledge available at the beginning of the 20th century, working on it for four decades. His project followed the tradition of the "Rome submissions," where residents of the Villa Medici presented reconstructions of architectural elements of ancient Rome. It also coincided with the profound renewal of knowledge about the city during major works accompanying its transformation into the capital of modern Italy. The Plan of Rome quickly gained recognition as both an artistic masterpiece and a valuable educational tool, with various international events showcasing it to the public.
Following drawings and watercolors, reconstructions of ancient Rome took the form of models in the 20th century. From the late 20th century and early 21st century, with advances in computer technology, reconstructions have increasingly relied on virtual reality. Bigot created four plaster models before his death in 1942, only two of which remained in the early 21st century—one in Caen and the other in Brussels. The Caen model, classified as a historic monument in 1978, has been the focus of dedicated work since the mid-1990s to create a virtual counterpart accessible to the public, integrating current knowledge about ancient Rome's topography. This project saw significant acceleration during the 2010s.
The most recent work, using advanced techniques and the virtual model, does not overshadow Bigot's monumental efforts, which remain a testament to early 20th-century knowledge about Rome. Bigot remains a pioneer in the topography of Rome, as well as in ancient architecture and urban planning. His work retains a certain prestige in the early 21st century, even beyond its archaeological accuracy. The virtual model, on the other hand, can evolve with new archaeological discoveries and advances in technology, enabling ongoing updates to the project.
History
A "Rome Submission" reflecting interest in ancient topography
Rome Grand Prix in 1900
Paul Bigot was a Normandy-born architect from Orbec and the brother of animal painter and sculptor (1872-1953). He won the Grand Prix de Rome in architecture in 1900 with his proposal for A Thermal Bath and Casino Establishment (including baths, a hotel, and a casino). His work made a strong impression, showcasing a coherent ensemble with distinctly differentiated elements. The competition granted access to training at the French Academy in Rome.
Upon arriving in Italy, Bigot developed a passion for ancient Rome, which was still largely hidden beneath the modern city. He became so involved in excavations that he spent more time at the French School than at the Villa Medici. At the Villa, he encountered Tony Garnier, who in 1901 submitted a provocative project for an Industrial City, described as a "manifesto for modern urbanism," which sparked numerous reactions. The idea of creating a model to represent a structure within its environment reportedly emerged from a discussion among residents, all of whom were architects, that same year.
The school imposed a mandatory exercise for architects to evaluate their skills and progress: the final-year "Rome submission." This traditionally involved a watercolor reconstruction or restoration of an ancient monument, accompanied by contemporary surveys of buildings—a practice dating back to 1778. These works helped preserve the state of ancient buildings during the 18th and 19th centuries. Restoration focused on ruins and sought plausibility, while reconstruction aimed to reproduce the ancient state of a structure. Both approaches raised the question of "the relationship between representation and the reality of the depicted object." Bigot began his work with submissions similar to those of his peers. In 1902, he signed a petition advocating for greater freedom in the submissions for Villa Medici residents.
Bigot chose to work on a disappeared structure in a densely built area. His third-year submission in 1903 was a reconstruction of the Circus Maximus, which at the time was covered by a gasworks plant. In 1905, he submitted a board titled Research on the Boundaries of the Grand Circus, attempting a plausible reconstruction of a monument that was "almost entirely disappeared." This reconstruction was still considered plausible even at the end of the 20th century despite certain "risky" elements. To support his hypotheses, Bigot conducted archaeological excavations funded by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, publishing the results and drawing analogies with other structures, such as the Circus of Maxentius. He also produced detailed reports to bolster his funding requests for this costly project. He secured a grant of 5,000 francs from the Académie in 1908, along with private and public funding, including 25,000 francs from the French government in 1909 in exchange for a promise to donate the model to the Sorbonne.
At this point, he decided to create an architectural model, and his Circus Maximus was submitted in 1908. The enthusiastic reception of this initial work, regarded from the start as "an impressive piece for the vivid image it provides of the ancient city," encouraged him to embark on a project that would ultimately occupy 40 years of his life. Bigot’s prolonged stay in Rome perplexed figures like Eugène Guillaume and the Académie des Beaux-Arts due to the project's costs. However, he disregarded their comments, bolstered by support from Louis Duchesne, the director of the French School of Rome.
He formed connections with prominent experts in Roman topography, including Christian Hülsen and Rodolfo Lanciani.
To his masters' surprise, Bigot first proposed a clay model of the Circus Maximus. To convey the building's scale, he then modeled the surrounding district, the city center, and eventually most of Rome (excluding the Baths of Diocletian and the Vatican) with a visionary approach that might no longer be evident today. By 1906, he had obtained subsidies to complete his work and was in Rome in 1907-1908 to prepare for the 1911 exhibition. By 1909, he had the idea of creating a bronze model.
Bigot's stay in Rome extended to seven years. According to Jérôme Carcopino, Bigot "infinitely delayed his departure for Paris, fearing that an error or omission would betray the fidelity of his model." Carcopino also remarked that "while promotions came and went, Bigot remained, eyes fixed on his plan, unwaveringly faithful to his dream." Ultimately, he spent eleven years in Rome, living on scholarships before returning to France in 1912.
Continuing a tradition
Bigot's model took the form of a relief plan. This technique had been developed extensively in France from 1668 under the initiative of Louis XIV's minister Louvois, primarily for military purposes, representing the kingdom’s major fortified places at a scale of 1/600. Two years earlier, Jean-Baptiste Colbert had founded the French Academy in Rome to "help artists draw inspiration from Roman models."
Bigot's work continued a long tradition of reconstructing the ancient city, beginning with Flavio Biondo's in 1446, followed by Pirro Ligorio in the 16th century, Giovan Battista Nolli in 1748, and Luigi Canina in the first half of the 19th century.
The first modern models of Rome appeared at the end of the 18th century, made of cork or plaster, intended for wealthy tourists or collectors like Louis-François-Sébastien Fauvel and Louis-François Cassas. Notably, they included a 3-meter-long Colosseum and a Pantheon displayed at the Johannisburg Castle. A partial relief model of Rome was made between 1850 and 1853 for military purposes following the siege of the city. This model realistically depicted ancient monuments as part of the backdrop for events, though they were not its primary focus.
From 1860, scholarship recipients were divided between scientific ambitions and a desire for freedom from the Académie des Beaux-Arts' strict rules requiring depictions of the current state and a restored version of a monument. The inclusion of "atmospheric reconstructions" as annexes to their submissions allowed architects to break free and present realistic scenes, which were popular at the time, inspired by artists like Théodore Chassériau, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
Paul Bigot belongs to the "tradition of architect-archaeologists," and his work stands at the crossroads of the envois de Rome from the 19th and 20th centuries, situated between studies of monument complexes and those focused on colonial cities such as Selinunte, Priene, or Pompeii. These studies of ancient newly planned cities are considered "one of the sources of modern urban planning." His plan aligns with the envois tradition aimed at presenting "a complete image of a monument or site," including representations of the city, buildings, and dwellings. The envois of this period focused on sanctuaries, thermal complexes, small towns, palaces, villas, or neighborhoods. Architects became increasingly interested in the urban fabric, as this era also marked the birth of urbanism. For the residents of the Villa Medici, their Roman stay was a "rediscovery of planned urbanism," distinguishing between two types of cities: newly founded ones and those "shaped by the slow work of time."
Period of archaeological and urbanistic effervescence in Rome They were also part of a movement of interest in the history and archaeology of ancient Rome, which followed the city's transformation into the capital of Italy after 1870 and the large-scale projects undertaken to make it the capital of a modern country. These infrastructure works isolated the ancient city from the developing suburbs. This period marked the "historical and archaeological rediscovery of the ancient city." It was no longer seen as a romantic vision of a city in ruins but rather as one threatened by "banal modernity." Ancient monuments became "symbols of patriotic grandeur." Urban planning debates emerged to beautify the new Italian capital, continuing the tradition of ancient urban design concepts.
This period also saw significant contributions from Rodolfo Lanciani, who published numerous popular works in French and English, as well as the more scientific Forma Urbis, a "turning point in Roman cartography," from 1893 to 1901. Discovered behind the Forum of Peace, the Forma Urbis continued to be studied and published into the late 20th century. Created under Emperor Septimius Severus, the Forma Urbis was a marble map of Rome at a 1:240 scale, dating back to the 3rd century. Only about 15% (1,019 fragments) have survived. Additional lost fragments, known through sketches, remain valuable for research. The Severan map, preserved at the Capitoline Museum, became the subject of studies and debates at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Despite acknowledged errors, Lanciani's 1:1000 publication of the Severan map remained a fundamental source for understanding vanished or poorly documented monuments. Between 1898 and 1914, a preserved space known as the Passeggiata Archeologica was created.