This third edition completes the history of the construction of the new Auditorium in Rome. It contains unpublished and extensive photographic coverage of the latter stages of the construction, up until the inauguration of the Santa Cecilia Hall on December the 21st 2002.

Ever since the birth of the Italian State, the Auditorium in the Capital has had a very complicated history. The first Roman municipal orchestra, which was linked directly to the Santa Cecilia National Academy, played its first concerts at the Argentina Theatre. After encountering a great deal of problems, it then moved, in 1908, to the famous Augusteo, a large hall above the mausoleum that had been built by Roman Emperor Augustus as a burial place for himself and all the other members of Giulio Claudia’s dynasty.

Because of rhetorical and magniloquent urban choices of the period, the Augusteo was demolished in 1936 to be replaced simply by a square. From then onwards the Capital has not had an adequate public hall for musical performances and the Santa Cecilia orchestra has had to move repeatedly from the Adriano, back to the Argentina and finally to the Auditorio Pio, in Via della Conciliazione.

Although various attempts were made to build a new auditorium, it was not until 1993, many decades later, that the journey towards the construction of today's Parco della Musica finally began.

“The Building Site and its History” follows this journey systematically with images and documents explaining all the construction phases, which started in 1993 and ended in 2002. There are also images of the area, as it stood empty and Renzo Piano’s drawings that were attached to the project since the beginning of the works in 1995.