Opus quadratum was a construction technique used by ancient Roman engineers to build walls, roads, and bridges by placing cut stone blocks in close proximity. The technique involved cutting the stone into square or rectangular shapes, and the stones fit together perfectly. Many structures built with the opus quadratum method can still be seen throughout Europe.
Opus quadratum is the term for a construction technique used by engineers in ancient Rome. Rome was famous for its building projects, many of which still stand in modern Europe. Opus quadratum was the method of building walls, roads and bridges by placing cut stone blocks in close proximity, sometimes without mortar or other binding substance. The Latin term roughly translates as square work.
The Roman Empire dominated Europe and the Middle East for nearly 1,000 years, from 500 BC to the 5th century AD During this period, it was infamous for its wars of conquest, subjecting entire nations to Roman rule and outright slavery. It had more positive aspects, including the fact that Rome enjoyed a high level of technology for a society of her time. His advances in engineering and construction are admired by many to this day. Among the advances of Roman architecture were the aqueduct, the dome and the underground sewer.
Opus quadratum was in use from the early days of the Roman Empire. The technique involved cutting the stone into square or rectangular shapes, as the Egyptians did when building their temples and pyramids. This method, called rustication in architectural terms, was very different from the technique of simply stacking uncut stones and binding them with mortar, the so-called rubble method used in much of Europe at the time. Once cut, the stones fit together perfectly. In early times the weight of the stones would often be sufficient to hold them in place; later, mortar was used to fix them.
Early examples of opus quadratum are often irregular, with rough spaces between stones. This is called masonry in the Etruscan way, after the first Etruscan civilization of Italy. Eventually, Roman engineers alternated long stones with short ones to create variety and strengthen the structure. This is known as the Greek way. Later archaeologists could determine the age of a Roman structure by looking at these methods and other clues in construction techniques.
Many structures built with the opus quadratum method can still be seen throughout Europe. They can be easily identified by the use of the Greek way technique, where the joints in a row of stones are placed in the center of the underlying blocks. In addition to its aesthetic qualities, this method gives greater stability to the structure, whether mortar is used or not. A similar technique is used by masons in the modern era for the same reasons.
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