It is now sometimes used for special exhibitions and preserves its inlaid marble floor from the third century, along with fragments of friezes. John Lateran, and the changes made to it over the centuries were stripped off between 19. Borromini adapted its bronze doors to serve as the main doorway of St. The first Curia was erected in the time of the kings and rebuilt frequently as a result of fires and other damage.Ī plain and unornamented building, both inside and outside, it could seat 300 senators. The meeting-place of the Roman Senate is one of the best preserved ancient buildings in the Forum, protected from further destruction when it was converted into a church in the seventh century. Note: Some businesses may be temporarily closed due to recent global health and safety issues. See also: Where to Stay near the Roman Forum The area served as a quarry of building stone and a cow pasture until 18th- and 19th-century excavations uncovered the Forum from a layer of dirt and rubble as deep as 15 meters. This is further complicated by layers of later churches and fortresses that were built amid the ancient remains. Commerce soon joined religion and government, with the building of market halls that made the Forum the center of all public activity, not just for Rome, but for an increasingly large part of the continent.īy the end of the Imperial Period, the Forum was a densely built-up complex in which 'modern' buildings rubbed shoulders with ancient ones, making it difficult today to identify individual buildings. This combination soon made the area the political center of the city–the meeting place of the courts and the assemblies that directed the affairs of the republic. The first buildings here were temples, followed by public buildings. That's why a tour using a headset with an expert guide is helpful, so you can listen as you snap photos and appreciate the grandeur of one of Rome's most popular and important tourist attractions.įor more than a thousand years, the might of Rome, the magnificence of Roman art, and Roman law and religion found expression here and radiated throughout Europe and beyond. The Forum is so vast, and often crowded, that it's difficult to make sense of it or know what happened where. Although the surviving remains give only a hint of the grandeur and splendor of the Forum in ancient times, this area, with its columns still standing tall or lying tumbled on the ground, its triumphal arches, and its remains of once-important buildings, are still impressive even to 21st-century visitors. We may earn a commission from affiliate links ( )įew sites are so filled with a sense of history as the Roman Forum (Foro Romano), where, for many centuries, the fate of Europe was decided.

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