TV Series · 2019

The Name of the Rose

Umberto Eco's abbey rebuilt over four thousand square metres at Cinecittà. The library, in two copies: one could be set on fire.

Story

Act one

Eco never saw
this second time.

"We were utterly faithful to the description in the book and to Umberto Eco's drawings in reconstructing the spaces. We took some liberties with the abbey: we made it less harsh, drawing on a non-primitive Gothic, rich and mature."

— Giacomo Battiato, director
ANSA, 1 March 2019.

"The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco was published in 1980: five million copies sold, eleven awards, Annaud's film with Sean Connery in 1986. Almost forty years later, Rai Fiction, 11 Marzo Film, Palomar and Tele München Group decided to build the abbey again from scratch, but across 8 episodes: the time, the digressions, the spoken frescoes that cinema had been forced to compress.

Umberto Eco passed away in February 2016: he would never see this new abbey. What remained were his original drawings — published in the novel's appendices — which became Battiato's map and that of production designer Francesco Frigeri, used to rebuild, stone by stone, the Benedictine abbey of 1327. On set arrived John Turturro as William of Baskerville and Rupert Everett as the inquisitor Bernardo Gui.

John Turturro as William of Baskerville and Damian Hardung as Adso, surrounded by monks and armed knights in chain mail. The hall has walls covered in medieval murals, red tapestries — William and Adso among monks and knights

William (Turturro) in shadow among his fellow monks, lit by warm candlelight. Caravaggesque atmosphere, set in chiaroscuro — The chapter hall, in chiaroscuro

Four monastic characters from the series — Bernardo Gui, Severino, William, Adso — lined up against the frescoed chapel wall, polychrome stained glass on the right, a lit candelabra — The frescoed chapel, at portrait height

Act two

Four thousand square metres
of faux stone.

To rebuild the abbey, the production opened three sound stages at Cinecittà and a large outdoor backlot: over 4,000 square metres of set, articulated across cloister, church, refectory, chapter hall, cells, stables, infirmary, dormitories, scriptorium. Base materials: fibreglass, carved expanded polystyrene, plasters and fibre-reinforced mortars to simulate living stone. It's the craft Creation Art has practised since 1981, when Ivano Ferrario joined Cinecittà as an apprentice in the team of plasterer-sculptors.

The most memorable piece of Eco's abbey is the library-labyrinth of the Aedificium — the maze of rooms where the only remaining copy of the second book of Aristotle's Poetics is hidden. For filming, the library was built twice: a full version, rich with shelves and illuminated manuscripts, and a second fireproof copy, identical to the first in its profiles, designed to be set ablaze in the final fire scene. It's a level of cinematic craftsmanship rare in an Italian TV series.

Wide-angle view of the outdoor backlot: open-air work site with the abbey's bell tower still half-built, crane, monastic buildings, scaffolding. Blue sky with white clouds — The backlot, 4,000 m² at Cinecittà

A full-height twinned column in faux carved stone on the sound stage, acanthus-leaf capitals, double-bulb base, scaffolding in the background — A twinned column, carved

Gothic three-light window with three round arches and central oculus, small columns in carved faux stone, exposed stone walls. Abbey interior in progress — The cloister's three-light window

Behind the scenes

The abbey that
never existed.

Eco's abbey is a literary place: no Italian Benedictine monastery matches the map the novel describes. For the series, the production chose to build the abbey from scratch at Cinecittà, combining two levels: an outdoor backlot with walls, towers and entrances seen from outside, and three interior sound stages with cloister, halls, library, cells and scriptorium. We worked on the scenography throughout 2017, ready in time for the 2018 shoot. For natural exteriors — the village, the streets, the distant monastery — the crew shot in Abruzzo (Roccascalegna, Hermitage of Santo Spirito a Majella), Umbria (Perugia, Bevagna, Montelabate) and Lazio (Vulci, Manziana, Torri in Sabina).

Overall view of the abbey interior set under construction: mixed stone walls, twinned columns, round arches, scaffolding on the right, blue mortar buckets in the foreground — The chapter hall under construction, Cinecittà sound stage, 15 December 2017.

The outdoor backlot

On the open-air backlot we built the exterior of the abbey: watchtowers, bell tower, perimeter walls, multi-level monastic buildings. The structures are in lightweight masonry patinated to look like ancient stone, mounted on a grid of scaffolding and timber to give depth to the overall view. Between one structure and another, the crane yard and the warehouse of modular pieces. From the air it looks like a small Italian medieval village.

The interiors in studio

On the three interior sound stages we rebuilt the entire inhabited abbey: the cloister with twinned columns, the chapter hall with round arches, the monks' cells, the scriptorium, the frescoed chapel. Faux-stone columns carved to measure, Gothic three-light windows with central oculi, mullioned windows with knotted small columns, arched portals with frames. It's the Romanesque-Cluniac grammar, stone by stone, inside an industrial hangar.

The library, twice

"The fire of the Aedificium" is the key scene of the novel: the secret library of Jorge of Burgos burns, with the only remaining copy of Aristotle's Poetics on comedy inside. To shoot that scene, the library was rebuilt twice: the first time for normal shots (shelves, manuscripts, candelabra), the second in fireproof materials identical to the first in profile, to be set ablaze for real without ruining the "live" set. It's the level of craft you see on Game of Thrones, applied to an Italian TV drama.

4,000 square metres of backlot · three Cinecittà sound stages

132 distribution countries · second best-selling Italian drama in the world

€26 M production budget · international co-production Rai · 11 Marzo · Palomar · Tele München

Exterior faux-stone masonry under construction, wooden scaffolding for the arched window mouldings, white walls in the sun — **The windows, in moulding.** Wooden scaffolds trace the arch silhouettes before the faux stone closes them.

Round-arched interior portal with exposed-stone masonry and symmetrical carved crosses on either side. Red 'NO SMOKING' sign posted above the door — **The cloister entrance.** Exposed stone, carved crosses and — above the door — the sound stage's "no smoking" sign.

Mullioned windows with knotted small faux-stone columns, round arches, white-plastered walls, scaffolding on the right — **The mullioned windows with knotted columns.** Classic Romanesque hallmark, carved piece by piece in our workshop.

View of the outdoor backlot: abbey stone walls, round-arched portal in white stone, forklift in the foreground in front of the portal, scaffolding in the background — A door of the exterior abbey, seen from the service yard.

A round-arched portal in faux stone, finished in studio: yellow faux-stone frame, exposed stone wall, scaffolding on the right. Abbey interior set under construction. — The portal, in studio

Four monks portraying Bernardo Gui, Severino, William of Baskerville and Adso, in a chapel interior with walls covered in figurative frescoes, polychrome stained-glass windows to the right, a lit candle. — The same walls, on screen

Close-up of William (John Turturro) with the hood of his Franciscan habit raised and Adso (Damian Hardung) behind him. In the background, warm-toned medieval frescoes. — William and Adso, among the frescoes

We took some liberties with the abbey:
we made it less harsh, drawing
on a rich and mature Gothic.

Giacomo Battiato, director ANSA · 1 March 2019

Tech sheet

Eight episodes, one season

The Name of the Rose by Giacomo Battiato is an 8-episode miniseries, aired on Rai 1 from 4 March 2019 over four evenings. Each episode runs between 49 and 56 minutes. Serialisation gives Eco's novel back its room for digression — the frescoes, the theological debates, the portraits of monks — that Annaud's 1986 film had been forced to compress into two hours of celluloid.

Four thousand square metres of abbey

The production opened three sound stages at Cinecittà Studios and an outdoor backlot of over 4,000 m². On the sound stages we rebuilt the cloister, church, chapter hall, refectory, scriptorium, cells, infirmary, forges, dormitories, stables. On the backlot, the abbey's exterior as seen from outside: towers, walls, entrances, bell tower. All in fibreglass, carved polystyrene and fibre-reinforced mortars, patinated to look like ancient stone.

One hundred and thirty-two countries worldwide

The Name of the Rose was sold in 132 countries — more than any other Italian TV drama of the decade after Gomorrah. On the main international broadcasters: BBC Two in the United Kingdom, SundanceTV in the United States, Sky Deutschland in Germany, OCS in France, SBS in Australia, KBS 1TV in South Korea. Confirmation that an abbey rebuilt at Cinecittà can tell the Middle Ages to the entire world better than many real castles filmed on location.

Twenty-six million budget

The Name of the Rose had a budget of 26 million euros, financed by the co-production between Rai Fiction, 11 Marzo Film, Carlo Degli Esposti's Palomar and Tele München Group. It's one of the highest budgets ever invested in an original Rai series. The scenography bore the signature of Francesco Frigeri — production designer who won the 2019 Globo d'Oro for Best Production Design precisely for this abbey.

All production data

Type: Television series · 8-episode miniseries · historical drama/thriller
International title: The Name of the Rose
Based on: "Il nome della rosa" by Umberto Eco (Bompiani, 1980)
Direction: Giacomo Battiato
Screenplay: Andrea Porporati · Nigel Williams · John Turturro · Giacomo Battiato
Production designer: Francesco Frigeri (Globo d'Oro 2019 · Best Production Design)
Main cast: John Turturro (William of Baskerville) · Damian Hardung (Adso of Melk) · Rupert Everett (Bernardo Gui) · Michael Emerson (Jorge of Burgos) · Greta Scarano (Anna)
Production: Rai Fiction · 11 Marzo Film · Palomar (Carlo Degli Esposti) · Tele München Group
First broadcast: Rai 1 · 4 March 2019 (4 evenings · 8 episodes)
International distribution: BBC Two (UK) · SundanceTV (USA) · Sky Deutschland (Germany) · OCS (France) · SBS (Australia) · KBS 1TV (South Korea) · sold in 132 countries
Episode runtime: 49–56 minutes per episode
Budget: 26 million euros
Interior locations: Cinecittà Studios, Rome · outdoor backlot + three sound stages, over 4,000 m²
Exterior locations: Abruzzo (Gole di Fara San Martino, Roccamorice, Hermitage of Santo Spirito a Majella, Roccascalegna) · Umbria (Perugia, Bevagna, Montelabate Abbey) · Lazio (Vulci, Tuscolo, Bracciano-Martignano-Manziana, Torri in Sabina)
Our role: Production of cinematic scenography in fibreglass, carved polystyrene and fibre-reinforced mortar for the outdoor backlot and the three sound stages: towers, walls and bell tower of the abbey, cloister with twinned columns, chapter hall, refectory, scriptorium, chapel, monks' cells, round-arched portals, mullioned and three-light windows with knotted columns. Built in 2017, ready in time for the 2018 shoot.
The library-labyrinth: Rebuilt in a double copy: a normal version and one in fireproof materials identical in profile, to film the final Aedificium fire scene without compromising the live set.
Trivia: Umberto Eco passed away in February 2016: he never saw this adaptation of his novel.
Second life: Abbey set dismantled after the shoot · some carvings (capitals, mullioned windows, portals) kept in our workshops as a medieval-school archive

Second life

The burned Aedificium,
the archive that remained.

The series The Name of the Rose by Giacomo Battiato aired in 2019 on Rai/Sky with great international following. The outdoor abbey scenography, the sound stage interiors at Cinecittà, the double-copy library-labyrinth (one standard and one identical fireproof for the final fire scene) were dismantled after the shoot.

Some of the most refined carvings — capitals, mullioned windows with knotted columns, round-arched portals in patinated faux stone — came back into our workshops as a medieval scenographic-school archive. The grammar of Northern European Romanesque-Gothic returns in every commission we take on for a film or series set between the 11th and 14th centuries.

Umberto Eco passed away in February 2016 — he never saw this adaptation of his novel. The series is, in effect, a posthumous tribute to his narrative work, built with the same philological patience with which Eco had built the book back in 1980.