Association Dianae Lacus - Nemi

PROJECT DIANA

with the patronage of

Italian Navy
Ministry of the Environment and Cultural Affairs
Region of Lazio
Province of Rome
Castelli Romani National Park
LegaAmbiente
Bank of Rome

Contents

                      

  	1.  What is Project Diana?

  	2.  Structure of the Project.

  	3.  Costs and financing.

  	4.  How sponsors can support the project and obtain profits.

  	5.  The Association Dianae Lacus

 		6.  State of progress of project Diana

  	7.  Information and PR services

  	8.  Nemi and the lake

  	9. A short history of the two ships

	10. Wonders from the classical age

1. What is Project Diana?

Project Diana, proposed by the association Dianae Lacus of Nemi, concerns the reconstruction of the Roman prima nave (first ship) of Lake Nemi. This ship, along with a second one (seconda nave), which was recovered from the lake at the same time during the thirties, was completely destroyed by fire in 1944 before the end of WWII. The reconstruction of the prima nave ( 70 metres long and 20 metres the beam) will be made (size 1:1, floating on the lake) up to the first deck, according the official, scientific evidence.
No documentation is available about the shape and size of the buildings and temples built on the deck. Project Diana obtained the patronage of the Italian Navy (which gave the association official documentation, drawings, studies, etc), of the Ministry for the Environment and Cultural Affairs, the Region of Lazio, the Province of Rome, the Castelli Romani National Park and the national environmental association LegaAmbiente.
The replica of the prima nave, when reconstructed, will be moored on the lake in front of the museum (where the wrecks once were) and employed in scientific studies, exhibitions, cultural events, concerts, etc.
The association's aim is to promote a kind of New Deal for the rich archaeological, historical and natural patrimony in the territory around the lake, still relatively unknown even today.

2. Structure of the project

Project Diana is divided into three sub-projects.
a) Subproject 'Navis' concerning purchase of rough materials and equipment, general planning and construction of the ship, organization of the shipyard on the banks of Lake Nemi for assembly operations, and so on, with participation of the two shipyards from Torre del Greco near Naples, of the shipyard from Lavagna near Genoa, and of the international scientific committee of Dianae Lacus (Mr. Marco Bonino, scientific expert, and Regional Archaeological Authority as coordinators);

b) Sub-Project 'Genius Loci': concerning planning and construction of the equipment and facilities for mooring, management, repairing and protection of the ship, according to solutions that must be balanced with environmental and landscape concerns. The above mentioned shipyards, the association's architect's office, Dianae Lacus, the international scientific committee and the special working group set up by the Council of Nemi, are already working on this subproject.

c) Sub-Project 'Egeria': concerning the management of the ship. When completed; a specific administration company will be set up to manage the utilisation of the ship and to guarantee a sufficient level of self financing. In fact, this is fundamental to guarantee funds for repairing, maintenance and rigging services. The company will be set up by the Castelli Romani Business Association, by Dianae Lacus, local Councils, private partners and sponsors.

Present state of progress of Project Diana is as follows:

a) Navis; the forward structure of the ship it is now under construction in the shipyards of Torre del Greco (Di Donato and Speranza);

b) Genius Loci; the association's architect's office has already completed the preliminary study on the facilities and the environmental impact;

c) Egeria: preliminary studies are under way.

3. Costs and Financing

General costs concerning the prima nave including  facilities, insurance, mooring, rigging and 
protection structures are now estimated about 7.2 million euro.
Sub-project Navis				4.7 million euro
Sub-project Genius Loci				2.4 million euro
Sub-project Egeria 				0.1 million euro

Financing is expected as follows:

a) Local Public Administration Authorities-	up to 500,000 euro;
b) European Community-				up to 2.5 million euro;
c) Private contributions-			up to 0.1 million euro;
d) sponsors- 					up to 4.1  million euro.

With regard to the EEC financing, a joint initiative by three European town councils
(French, British and German) linked by direct and indirect twinship agreements with 
Nemi, is now engaged in trying to obtain support from EU funds set up for European 
cultural projects.Every sum collected will be deposited in a special bank account 
registered in the name of Project Diana; a statement of accounts will periodically 
sent to the sponsors.

4. How sponsors can support the project and obtain profits

To facilitate sponsors' decisions for financing the project, Dianae Lacus has decided to offer different and convenient solutions in connection with different phases of the construction programme. Therefore, each sponsor can choose to associate its name and image with one of the following opportunities or phases:


a) construction of the forward structure (bow and part of the keel) - 
								50,000 euro;
											
b) transport from the shipyards to the lake, assembly and insurance of the above forward structure - 					
								2,500 euro;
											
c) scale model of the ship, general engineering planning, construction schemes, etc. - 
								100,000 euro
											
d) supplying of raw timber - 					650,000 euro;

e) construction and assembly of the complete framework of the ship -
 								350,000 euro;
 											
f) internal and external planking, beams, and ground-beams - 
								1.1 million euro;
											
g) decks and accessories - 								0.8 million euro;

h) caulking and lead lining - 					0.9 million euro;

i) bronze decorations, artistic bronze objects, marble, mosaic etc. - 
												 								0.6 million euro;
											
l) equipment, facilities for mooring, repairing, administration and protection, etc - 
								2.4 million euro.
								
m) insurance (not evaluated yet).

So far, a) and b) have already been financed.
Dianae Lacus is now waiting for financing also in connection with each step of construction programme. Dianae Lacus guarantees each sponsor that its name and its image will be linked with the project. But the most important thing is that the attraction for sponsors depends on the incredible renown of the two ancient Roman ships of Lake Nemi and the mystery surrounding them, even sixty years after their destruction.
The association's internet site, registered over five thousand contacts after only a few months. Association Dianae Lacus will give adequate advertising space to each sponsor on its internet site. Therefore, sponsorship of the Roman ship of Nemi makes absolutely good business sense.
In addition, Dianae Lacus will guarantee each sponsor:

a) participation of an auditor at every general meeting of the association;
b) trade mark and logo of each sponsor will be printed in all publications, advertising leaflets, booklets, folders, movies etc. concerning the project;
c) utilisation of the ship for meetings, special events, etc. concerning the PR policies of the sponsor;
d) official thanks will be included during press conferences, speeches, press releases, interviews, etc.
e) a share of the capital when the company for the administration of the ship is set up.
f) the trade mark and logo of each sponsor will be exhibited on flags, posters, labels etc, put in the services area of the ship.
g) each sponsor may utilise the Project Diana logo in its official publications,
h) other specific advantages can be negotiated with the association according to particular requirements of the sponsor.

5. The Association Dianae Lacus

Founded in December 1995 with headquarters in Nemi (Rome) Via delle Ginestre 9, tel. and fax 0039 06 9368464, Dianae Lacus (Latin for "the Lake of Diana") operates for the recovery and protection of the cultural and historical patrimony of the territory around the lake and for the reconstruction of the Roman prima nave (to be constructed to real size and floating in the lake).
The association is made up of individuals passionately fond of the ancient civilization of the territory, but also includes the town councils of Nemi and Genzano; the town of Genzano is located on the other side of the lake. Dianae Lacus is a member of the Castelli Romani Cultural Association, set up by the Business Association of the same name.

6. State of progress of Project Diana

After the official presentation of the project in Nemi, at the Museum of the Roman Ships, on 23rd March 1996, the association worked intensely to improve knowledge and information on the historical, archaeological, technical and logistical questions.
Three expert shipyards, specialising in wooden ship construction (Sangermani near Genoa, Di Donato and Speranza at Torre del Greco, near Naples) decided to participate in the common challenge. The Italian Navy has given the association its patronage and all documents, studies and technical drawings made by its technicians about the wrecks before their destruction. The association has contacted some of the most famous international experts and scientists on naval achaeology, to form an International Scientific Committee to lead the scientific aspects of the project.
Mr. Marco Bonino, a famous scholar of history and technical aspects of the Nemi ships, became a member of the association and accepted the responsibility for the general historical and technical planning of the construction.He is also in charge of organising contacts, as coordinator, with the members of the international committee. Another expert in naval archaeology, the Italian professor Piero Gianfrotta, agreed to collaborate on the same committee.
Dianae Lacus is in contact with potential sponsors and public authorities to verify different opportunities and conditions of financing. On July 18th 1998, the town council of Nemi, during an extraordinary session, discussed the project and approved the construction of the forward structure of the ship. Therefore the two Torre del Greco Shipyards began the construction of stem, stempost (9 metres high) and 18 metres of keel (first phase of Project Diana).

The ceremony of assembly will be organized in Nemi on the square area in front of the museum as the official beginning of the project. The territorial archaeological authority granted official permission to assemble the stem, stempost and keel in that area which is owned by the museum, until such time as the association will be able to use the special area between the museum and the lake (owned by the Italian state). On October 7, during a press conference, Dianae Lacus and the Italian Navy, at the Navy Officers Club of Rome, announced officially that the construction of the stempost had begun.

7. Information and PR Services

For information about Project Diana it is possible to contact:

		Dianae Lacus, 
		Via della Ginestre 9, 
		00040 Nemi (Rome) 
		tel. 0039 06 9368464

			MGLogos, 
			Lungotevere Testaccio 9, 
			Roma.
			Tel.0039-0657300859 - Fax: 0039-0657138165

Other information is available at the association's internet website: http://www.virtual-pc.com/orontes/index.html As far as PR or publicity and advertising questions are concerned, it is possible to get in touch with MGLogos listed above.

8. Nemi and the Lake

Lake Nemi is a small sheet of water of volcanic origin surrounded by woods which cover the high ground around the lake. This high ground looks like great walls around the old crater. On the top of this ground there are the two towns of Genzano and Nemi, situated on opposite sides of the crater. Nemi (whose name derives from the latin word nemus which means wood, the old wood sacred to the goddess Diana) is a very small and pretty town on a spur of rock overlooking the lake. The ruins of the ancient temple of Diana are still there, on the green banks on the nothern side of the lake. The temple was linked with the famous Via Appia (the ancient important Roman road between Rome and Brindisi) through another secondary road called the Via Sacra (Sacred Road) or Via Virbia (Virbius was the latin name of Ippolitus, the young man loved by Diana) which exists even today. Via Virbia permitted pilgrims to reach the temple of Diana, to pray and give thanks. Nemi, famous for its production of strawberries and flowers, has always been appreciated by famous writers, musicians and poets.
Goethe, Lord Byron and Gounod, for instance, lived in Nemi and were inspired to write poems, novels and music, admiring the moon reflected magically in the middle of the lake during the summer nights. This is the reason why ancient Romans called the lake Speculum Dianae; Diana's Mirror. In fact Diana was identified with the moon.

9. A short history of the two ships

The existence of the two ships of Roman origin was already noted in the Middle Ages: local fishermen had already explored the huge structures which were submerged underwater and had taken away various artifacts.
Systematic stripping of the site continued in successive periods, made more respectable during the Renaissance by the love of scholars, artists and men of letters for the classical world. Clumsy attempts at recovery of the two wrecks, including those of Leon Battista Alberti, of the great humanist, Cardinal Prospero Colonna (the first to talk of recovery of the two ships), the Bolognese De Marchi - who made use of the first diving suit in history, resulted in significant damage to the ships, from which important structures or parts were removed by means of hooks on lines and which subsequently disappeared without trace.
In 1827 attempts at recovery of the wrecks were resumed by the knight Annesio Fusconi who built a huge floating platform and used a diving bell, but without any success. Even if it was not yet certain that the ships belonged to antiquity, the idea became widespread that the material already recovered belonged variously to the ancient temple of Diana and the famous villa of Caesar, cited by Suetonius.
Is was Eliseo Borghi who, in 1895, with the agreement of the Ministry of Education, started a systematic study and established, with the aid of a capable diver, the existence of at least one ship, recovering the bronze tiller head of one of the rudders. Later Borghi managed to recover further material including the bronze representations of various wild animal heads and in the process established the existence of a second ship. The moment was arriving for a realistic assessment of the possibility of recovering the two wrecks. There was no shortage of ideas: the wildest and most improbable ideas abounded. The engineer Malfatti of the Italian Navy, finally managed to survey the wrecks using scientific methods, obtaining accurate data on the position, the state and the feasibility of recovery of the two ships.
Malfatti, after having carefully studied the data he had gathered, concluded that there was only one viable method to recover the ship, that of partially draining the lake. After WWI, this was the idea that was taken up once again for serious consideration by archaeologists and in 1927, the government decided to attempt the undertaking. With the help of the Navy, Army, industry and private individuals, the best method of draining the lake was decided upon; namely through the reactivation of an ancient Roman water conduit that ran underground linking the lake inside the crater to the countryside outside the extinct volcano.
The company Riva of Milan made a floating pumping platform available free of charge. The draining operations began on 20 October 1928 and the first signs of the first ship (prima nave) emerged from the lake on 28 March 1929 after the water level had been lowered by more than 5 metres from the original level.
In September, as described by G. Ucelli (chairman of the company Riva of Milan and author of the book 'Le Navi di Nemi' ) 'the only example of naval architecture from antiquity appeared before the very eyes of the visitors'.
While the operation of freeing the prima nave from the mud and transporting it onto dry land was under way, the operation to recover the second ship (seconda nave) started and on 10 June 1931 it emerged completely from the water. However, due to technical problems encountered, it was only in the subsequent spring that the huge ship was definitively freed from the grip of the waters. Once the hull had been set on a cradle, it too was brought onto dry land in October. A purpose built museum was constructed to house and protect the two ships and this was inaugurated in January 1936.
The efforts to recover the ships which had had a history of over 500 years, starting with Prospero Colonna and eventually crowned with success by Ucelli, was brought to nothing after the brief span of little more than 7 years. On the night of 30 May 1944, at the height of the Second World War, human folly reduced the two great ships to ashes. Only the bronzes and material already moved and stored in Rome were saved. Fortunately the plans and the drawings made by the Italian Navy and by the archaeologist G. Gatti were saved too, since otherwise it would have been impossible to conceive of a faithful reconstruction of the ship.

10. Two Wonderful Examples of Ancient Naval Architecture

The two ships were masterpieces of naval engineering, equipped with extremely advanced features. For example, there were rotating platforms which utilised ball bearing races, there were pumps for the bilges, hot and cold water pipes, anchors with moving jaws, an invention hitherto thought to be an invention of the British (Admiralty pattern anchors), watertight coverings, lead sheeting which covered the hull, a perfect system of jointing for joining the exterior planking of the hull etc. The ships were over 70 metres long and had a beam of 20 metres and 24 metres for the first and the second ships respectively.
They were constructed with the finest quality materials and then decorated with marble and mosaics. Buildings for the emperor and temples (perhaps dedicated to the cult of Diana and probably associated with the cult of Isis who was another lunar deity and one in which the emperor Caligula was particularly interested) were set on the deck.
However, the theory of the cult of Diana and/or Isis remains unproven. The simplest explanation of the ship�s use is that they were used for recreation and holidays in refreshing coolness away from the summer heat of Rome.
The prima nave did not have its own propulsion but was probably towed to the centre of the lake allowing the emperor to be bathed in the light of the sacred moon on the ides of August. The seconda nave was almost certainly powered by oars (the protruding beams along the sides of the hull seem to be structural support for the rowing positions) and it was probably intended for the imperial court and those invited to liturgical rites.
These costly grandiose ships had a strange fate.
After two years in construction, perhaps only one year of use, they were then intentionally sunk after the assassination of the emperor, in an attempt to blot out any remaining memory of him in the damnatio memoriae. A longer period of use is ruled out due to Caligula's brief 4 year reign prior to his death.
Before being sunk, the ships were stripped of precious objects, ballasted and then sunk. They then rested on the lake bottom for nearly two thousand years giving rise to legends and dreams. Then, after a superhuman effort they were brought once again into the light of day to receive the admiration of the world for a period of little more than 7 years after which the flames of the barbarians put an end to everything.
The end? No, now there is Project Diana.

March 2001
The project is proceeding and the bow section has been assembled on the banks of the lake in front of the museum. The next stage phase II is well under way. Phase I was the completion of the bow section the first 18 metres of the keel. Phase II is the completion of the keel, appx 54 metres including the high curving fish-tail stern. This has been completed but the sections are awaiting transport from Torre Del Greco to Nemi where they will be assembled to form the complete keel of the ship from stem to stern. This operation will take place soon.