3D Replica of the Capitoline Wolf – City of Alessandria

The City of Alessandria needed a 3D-printed replica of a Roman column with the Capitoline Wolf and the twins Romulus and Remus, to be displayed in Piazzale Alba Iulia while protecting the original monument. The historic column, donated by the Romanian twin city of Alba Iulia, would remain safely preserved inside the City Hall but still accessible to the public.
This project shows how 3D printing can enhance cultural heritage while safeguarding original artifacts.

When we carried out the photogrammetry work, the column was stored in the municipal warehouses. The entire survey was done there, paying particular attention to all handling and movement steps.

The column, about two metres long, was scanned in a horizontal position. The wolf and the twins Romulus and Remus were detached from the shaft, which allowed us to capture every detail with high-definition 3D scanning.

The printing phase turned out to be the most complex part of the project. The various components were produced in sections and then assembled, requiring several stages of post-production. In total, the process used around 70 kg of PLA (a bioplastic commonly used in 3D printing) and took several weeks of continuous work, with multiple printers running in parallel.

To ensure the strength of the replica, we designed 3 mm-thick walls with a 20% internal infill structure. Layer height was adjusted for each element: 0.2 mm for the wolf, where finer detail was needed, and 0.5 mm for the column.