Almost 60 years ago, construction began on what was then the biggest film set in the world. At five storeys high, with enough room to accommodate 8,000 extras, the huge arena dominated the backlot at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios, and would play host to one of the most famous scenes in film history: the bruising chariot race that marks the high point of William Wyler’s 1959 classic Ben-Hur.

That sequence, nine minutes long and starring a rotating cast of more than 80 horses, would eat up a quarter of the film’s spiralling budget: such were the excesses of Golden Age Hollywood. It is perhaps no coincidence that Sam Zimbalist, one of the film’s producers, died of a heart attack during the shoot, at the age of 53.