Spread across 15,000 square metres, the “hypogeum” – or below-ground area – of the 2000-year-old structure is open to the public following the completion of a meticulous restoration project funded by the Italian fashion house Tod’s.

Once covered by a wooden floor, the maze of dark corridors and chambers served as the amphitheatre’s backstage – and the last holding space for men and beasts who were released above to meet their fate in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

Although people have been able to descend into the hypogeum network – which lies beneath what was the amphitheatre’s arena and was invisible to spectators in ancient times – since 2010, they could enter only a small section.

Now, tourists will be able to walk through the passageways on a wooden platform and admire the corridors and archways which interconnected the hypogea between the rooms where gladiators and animals waited, before entering the elevators which would catapult them onto the arena.

Back then, the hypogea was illuminated by candlelight.

But with the arena’s original ground level long destroyed, it is visible from the Colosseum’s upper levels, and the sunlight filters down into its depths.

Sponsored by Italian luxury shoe group Tod’s, the restoration, begun in 2018, involved 81 archaeologists, engineers and others working to clean and reinforce the walls within the hypogeum, which stretches over half a hectare.

Tod’s chairman, Diego della Valle, pledged €25 million in 2011 for the entire restoration of the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Colosseum’s real name.

Yet to be constructed is a welcome centre at the UNESCO site, which received seven million visitors a year before the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, a project to restore the floor of the Colosseum to its former glory is expected to be completed in 2023.

The new, hi-tech stage, which could host cultural events, will be able to quickly cover or uncover the underground networks, allowing them to be protected from the rain or to be aired out.

In Roman times, crowds would fill the Colosseum to watch gladiators defeat animals including bears, tigers, elephants and rhinoceroses.