A musical monument
The Ara Pacis Mundi on Medea Hill is a sacred site, a monumental complex dedicated to the fallen soldiers of all wars. At its heart is a large purple porphyry altar surrounded by a 13-meter-high travertine marble colonnade.
Its grandeur, the contrast between light and dark, the play of light, empty and full spaces, the open-air view and the inscription on the altar invite respect. The place is rightly immersed in silence.
Thanks to the peacefulness between the smooth marble walls, one soon notices some curious and surprising acoustic effects.
The monument resonates everywhere, it is interesting to listen to its voices by moving to the various points of the enclosure and between the columns
An echo train
On the smooth marble walls the sound tilts like a ball, and the fact that the structure has parallel surfaces means that a clap of hands is repeated as many as 30 or more times before fading into silence.
Depending on where you stand this effect can be very fast or slower. For example, reflections on the long side can be felt as a 6-beat-per-second rhythm while in the niches between the columns the effect is much faster and dissipates in less than a second.
The electronic tabla
If you beat your hands on the walls of the half-closed columns (the ones on the right as you enter, to be clear) you can find points where the reflections are so many and so close together that they recall the sound of an electronic tabla.
This effect is also known as a “chirped echo” (chirped echo) because it evokes the cry of a bird and can be heard in the presence of smooth, stepped walls in different architecture scattered around the world. Particularly famous is that of the El Castillo pyramid at Chichén Itzá in Mexico, where some believe that the temple’s staircase was designed by the Maya specifically with the intention of evoking the cry of the sacred Quetzal by clapping their hands.
The voice of the moon
We happened to visit the Ara Pacis Mundi at night, with moonlight. In those conditions the place becomes magical, the columns cast long blue shadows, and if the sky is clear the view is breathtaking. The evocative and poetic power of the Ara Pacis is amplified, as are its effects.
We imagined a lyrical night song, enriched by the multiplication of voices, under the starry vault, with the power of a message of peace that is as necessary today as ever. Who knows, it may one day be realized.
Directions
WHERE
Salita all’Ara Pacis, 34076 Medea (Gorizia)
Well signposted. Drive through Medea and continue on the SP6 road, at the end of the village turn right and follow the signs.
WHEN
Always open
ACCESSIBILITY
Few steps prevent wheelchair access
Audio
Binaural audio, headphone listening recommended.
Please note: no recording no matter how technically advanced can ever represent the experience of real listening. Topofonie.it is not an archive of sounds, but an invitation to go and listen with our own ears to the world around us. The files given here are for illustrative purposes only.
Links and insights
- For more on the acoustic effect of “chirped echo” you can start here or here.
- The granite Altar holds a hypogeal chamber where a wooden and bronze urn containing clods of earth from more than 800 Italian and foreign war cemeteries, as well as ampoules with seawater taken from the spots where thousands of servicemen found their deaths on sunken ships.
- The institutional site of the Ara Pacis Mundi monumental complex can be found here.
- The Ara Pacis Mundi monument in Medea is a site belonging to the routes of the Great War
- It is also a stop on the Celestial Path or Iter Aquileiense.
- Next to the Ara Pacis is the “Court of Nobel Laureates,” a series of totems dedicated to men, women and international organizations that have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize since 1901.