From Arena to Quarry

After the fall of Rome, the Colosseum became a convenient source of building materials. Popes and noble families stripped it for centuries, prying loose marble seats, iron clamps, and decorative stone to reuse elsewhere in the city.

Much of that stone ended up in Rome's grandest buildings. St. Peter's Basilica itself contains material quarried from the Colosseum. The structure that had survived earthquakes and invasions was finally brought low by the Romans' own descendants, who treated it as a free building-supply store.