Description
Trajan's Markets are a large Roman brick complex on the slopes of the Quirinal, next to the Imperial Forums. Since 2007 they have housed the Museum of the Imperial Forums, with original pieces and casts to help you picture the monuments around.
They are called markets, but they had little of the market about them. The name was given by the archaeologists who brought them back to light between 1926 and 1934, struck by the rows of shops. Then someone noticed the stairs: no cart loaded with goods could ever have got up there.
The complex arose in the early second century, together with the Forum of Trajan, to support the flank of the hill that was cut away to make room for the Forum. It was possibly designed by Apollodorus of Damascus, Trajan's architect. It rises over six levels and follows the curve of the hill.
More than a shopping center, it must have been a multipurpose center, with offices and archives serving the Forum. It housed the procurator in charge of running the complex, mentioned in an inscription.
Don't miss the façade of the Great Hemicycle, all in shaped brick: pilasters, windows with triangular or curved pediments, a design that many Renaissance artists drew.
Then the Via Biberatica, the paved Roman street that runs halfway up between the buildings: you still walk on its slabs. From here a staircase climbs to the gardens and behind the complex, where in the thirteenth century the Torre delle Milizie was built.
The museum begins in the Great Hall, covered by six cross vaults. Each Forum is told through one significant piece, and further up are the sections devoted to the Forums of Caesar and Augustus, with fragments put back together to give back the volume of the lost buildings.
The museum recomposes the pieces with original fragments, casts and modular stone additions, following the principle of reversibility: every addition can be removed without damaging the original.
Even the floor has something to tell. Outdoors the Romans used opus spicatum, bricks laid on edge in a herringbone pattern, often covered with a black mosaic of flint tesserae to make the rooms waterproof.
They are called markets, but they had little of the market about them. The name was given by the archaeologists who brought them back to light between 1926 and 1934, struck by the rows of shops. Then someone noticed the stairs: no cart loaded with goods could ever have got up there.
The complex arose in the early second century, together with the Forum of Trajan, to support the flank of the hill that was cut away to make room for the Forum. It was possibly designed by Apollodorus of Damascus, Trajan's architect. It rises over six levels and follows the curve of the hill.
More than a shopping center, it must have been a multipurpose center, with offices and archives serving the Forum. It housed the procurator in charge of running the complex, mentioned in an inscription.
Don't miss the façade of the Great Hemicycle, all in shaped brick: pilasters, windows with triangular or curved pediments, a design that many Renaissance artists drew.
Then the Via Biberatica, the paved Roman street that runs halfway up between the buildings: you still walk on its slabs. From here a staircase climbs to the gardens and behind the complex, where in the thirteenth century the Torre delle Milizie was built.
The museum begins in the Great Hall, covered by six cross vaults. Each Forum is told through one significant piece, and further up are the sections devoted to the Forums of Caesar and Augustus, with fragments put back together to give back the volume of the lost buildings.
The museum recomposes the pieces with original fragments, casts and modular stone additions, following the principle of reversibility: every addition can be removed without damaging the original.
Even the floor has something to tell. Outdoors the Romans used opus spicatum, bricks laid on edge in a herringbone pattern, often covered with a black mosaic of flint tesserae to make the rooms waterproof.