page_title: Terebinth of Nero
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Terebinth of Nero / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Portale del Filareto, San Pietro, Rome, detail
context_page_description: The Terebinth of Nero was a mausoleum built in ancient Rome that is important for historical, religious and architectural reasons. By the 14th century, it was almost completely demolished.
context_section_description: The medieval guides describe the terebinthus as a very tall structure (comparable with the Castrum Crescentii, that is Hadrian's Mausoleum), with a circular plan and two elements  (like a castrum). Unfortunately, due to the vagueness of their descriptions, all the depictions of the monument (by Giotto, Cimabue, etc.) have very little in common with its real appearance Based on the middle age descriptions, it has been hypothesized that the terebinthus was a tomb of tumulus type, like the so-called tomb of the Curiatii at the beginning of the 6th mile of the Appian Way; In this case, the circular monument was composed of a large plinth tiled with travertine; above it, there was a tumulus of earth surmounted with a cylinder in masonry. On the top of it, towered the statue of the defunct or a memorial stone.
  In 1948–49, during the works for the construction of the first block of the north side of Via della Conciliazione, several semicircular stone blocks carved by a 8 cm deep groove accompanied by symmetrical double dovetail recesses came to light. They belonged either to the drain at the base of the monument, or to the plinth covering; in the latter case, the groove with dovetail recesses has to be interpreted as the interlocking of a balustrade. Depending on the hypothesis, the terebinth had a diameter of 20 m (in the former case) or of 22 m (in the latter case). The location of the terebinth resulting from the excavations of 1948–49, northwest of the Meta Romuli, is in contradiction with that given by all the middle age descriptions, which say that the monument lay northeast of the pyramid.
caption: The terebinth tree (in the lower right) between Castel Sant'Angelo and the Meta Romuli (with the Pyramid of Cestius in the lower left) in a tile of Filarete's Bronze doors in Saint Peter
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-TZ5", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2009:10:08 10:38:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "496", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "10140", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7403", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "33/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:10:08 10:38:39", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:10:08 10:38:39", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "86/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "47/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "10016", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Soft", "EXIF Sharpness": "Soft", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "b438d9bd01e883c4c86f70bfde4fc233"}