Full-scale Roman warship reconstruction underway in Fiumicino

A full-scale reconstruction of a Roman liburna warship is being built by the Carmosini family, a historic dynasty of master shipwrights, in Isola Sacra, Fiumicino, near Rome. The project, inspired by reliefs on Trajan's Column in the Imperial Fora, began in 2001 under Francesco Carmosini with the Magistri Schola de Navalis Artificium. The 37-meter-long vessel, modeled after ships used by Augustus at the Battle of Actium and later by Trajan in the Dacian campaign, is intended to become a public attraction alongside the Museo delle Navi in Fiumicino. The initiative originated from a Facebook appeal to create jobs linking environmental, archaeological, and coastal assets. In 2019, when funds ran out, Aries Sistemi donated to renew scaffolding. Now Oscar Carmosini, Francesco's son, continues the work. With three additional cubic meters of fir, the ship is nearing completion. Raffaele Megna of the Comitato Saifo (Sistema Archeoambientale Integrato Fiumicino Ostia) described the liburna as an important calling card to boost the area's heritage, including Ostia Antica, the imperial ports, and the necropolis, countering the illegal building that plagued the region in the 1970s and 1980s. The project underscores Rome's aquatic vocation, evidenced by the naumachiae of Piazza Navona, dolphin and shell friezes on the back of the Pantheon, and the ancient aqueducts.