Information about Cardo

For the crustacean genus Cardus, see Polychelidae.

For the typeface, see Cardo (typeface).

In ancient Roman city planning, a cardo or cardus was a north-south-oriented street in cities, military camps, and coloniae. Sometimes called the cardus maximus, the cardo served as the center of economic life. The street was lined with shops, merchants, and vendors.

Cardo in Roman city planning

Most Roman cities also had a Decumanus Maximus, an east-west street that served as a secondary main street. Due to varying geography, in some cities the decumanus is the main street and the cardo is secondary, but in general the cardus maximus served as the primary road. The Forum was normally located at the intersection of the Decumanus and the Cardo.

The cardo was the "hinge" or axis of the city, derived from the same root as cardinal. The term 'cardus' is derived from the north-south line the augurs would draw when making the auspices.

Examples

Jerusalem

The Cardo in the Old City of Jerusalem is one good example. After the Jewish rebellion of 70 was crushed by Titus' troops, Jerusalem was refounded as Colonia Aelia Capitolina and its new city plan featured a long colonnaded cardo running from north to south, date from the time of Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. The cardo is still a street in modern Jerusalem.

In 1971 a submission by architects Peter Bogod, Esther Krendel and Shlomo Aronson was approved by the Company for Reconstruction in the Old City. Their proposal relied heavily on the sixth century Madaba map, a mosaic map of Jerusalem found in 1897 in Madaba, Jordan. The Madaba Map clearly showed the Roman Cardo as the main artery through the Old City. Bogod, Krendel, and Aronson wanted to construct a commercially viable covered street, "in the physical continuation, style, proportions and atmosphere of the Arab bazaar, but in today's materials". Their plan anticipated that architects would be successful in finding the southern remains of the cardo, an extension of the main North-South Roman thoroughfare built during the Byzantine era (324 – 638). It was hoped that after the Cardo was discovered that it could be incorporated into the shopping gallery and also be connected to the north to the Arab bazaars running perpendicular to it.



Time was of the essence and mounting pressure to repopulate the Jewish Quarter led to the construction of a superstructure which allowed the residential buildings to be built while the archaeologists continued to work below. The project was 180 meters in total and was divided into eight sections to allow for construction teams to move quickly from one section to another depending on the needs of the archaeologists. By 1980 thirty-seven apartments had been occupied and thirty-five shops had opened; these were blended with archaeological finds, such as a Hasmonean wall from the second century BC and rows of Byzantine columns, to integrate seamlessly the new with the old. Another example of this conflation between the modern and the ancient can be seen along the Street of the Jews where shops have been set into old vaults and the gallery is covered by an arched roof containing small apertures to allow for natural lighting.

Coordinates: 31°46'34.40"N 35°13'51.65"E

Petra

The excavations at Petra in Jordan have unearthed the remains of an ancient Roman city on the site, with the main feature of the city being a colonnaded cardo. The original road survives.

Apamea, Syria

The Cardo Maximus of Apamea, Syria ran through the center of the city directly from North to South, linked the principal gates of the city, and was originally surrounded by 1200 columns with unique spiral fluting, each subsequent column spiraling in the opposite direction. The thoroughfare was about 1.85 kilometers long and 37 meters wide, as it was used for wheeled transport. The great colonnade was erected in the 2nd century and it was still standing until the 12th. The earthquakes of 1157 and 1170 demolished the colonnade. The cardo was lined on both sides with civic and religious buildings.

External links

• Cardo Street on a Jerusalem photo portal

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