2 - Survey of visible and standing structures, with Total Station, GPS, Laser Scanner, Photogrammetry.

Our Total Station GPS survey was carried on during several sessions in 2005, 2006 and 2009. Topographical data has been merged and cross-checked with other information coming from Laser scanner measurements: this instrument was used for the first time in the Accademia by architect Umberto Pavanello, who also made the topographical survey.

The topographical survey has been completed, now we are processing the data, with the help of architect Giorgia Andreatta, drawing a new plan of the Accademia and surrounding grounds. We will also draw elevations, sections and walls, a work that has never been done before; there are just few partial drawings of the elevations of the Belvedere, of the Temple of Apollo and the room east of it.

We are preparing 3D reconstructions, which are the best way to show the appearance and the different levels of the buildings. We already produced a 3D reconstruction of the two most complex structures of the Accademia, the Belvedere and the Temple of Apollo, which were drawn by Brigitta Casieri.

Fig. 9 - comparing the plans by Piranesi, Salza Prina Ricotti 

and Kähler we see the mistake 

of a double corridor which does not exist.

During our survey we were able to detect and correct several mistakes both in ancient and modern plans. For example, in the plan by Piranesi there is a double corridor near the Temple of Apollo which does not exist. This  mistaken corridor appears in all the subsequent plans, including the one by Salza Prina Ricotti of 1982, but it is not shown in the plan by Kähler, who made a brand new survey of the site without reworking previous plans: he noticed and corrected the mistake. (fig. 9, red arrows).

Fig. 10 - One of the Towers overlooking 

the Fosso di Risicoli

 discovered during our survey

We also discovered some new imposing structures, which were never surveyed and are unknown in previous literature. 

It is a series of Towers and retaining walls, about 15 meters high (fig. 10), overlooking the cliff of the Fosso di Risicoli; they were linked by a panoramic hanging Terrace, and were connected to a network of Cryptoporticoes and subterranean galleries located underneath the Accademia.

In the antiquarian plans there is just a simplified straight line indicating the retaining walls and a circular room (hypothetically a thermal plant because of its shape), which in the plan by Piranesi it is surrounded by a series of symmetrical rectangular rooms, hypothetically reconstructed. 

New data coming from our survey and especially from the work of architects Robert Mangurian and Mary Ann Ray (which was indispensable for reconstructing the circular room) showed that the actual situation was completely different.

Expected Outcome: our new complete and updated plan of the Accademia gives a clear picture of its state of preservation, without the integrations or reconstructed rooms that are not visible any more and are drawn in antiquarian plans. The recent Pianta del Centenario (2006) only surveyed the public part of Villa Adriana leaving out the Accademia, since it is located in a private property; our work will therefore complete the documentation of the whole Villa.

UPDATE: The results of the Progetto Accademia are published in the following books:

Marina De Franceschini, Giuseppe Veneziano. Villa Adriana, Architettura Celeste. I segreti dei Solstizi. 2011, ristampa 2016, Rirella Editrice: www.rirella.editrice.com
Marina De Franceschini, Villa Adriana, Accademia. Hadrian's Hadrian's secret garden. History of the studies and excavations from the XIV to the XVII centuries. Pisa-Roma 2016. . www.rirella.editrice.com

Fig. 11 - The Cryptoporticus in the 

Accademia substructures