Palatino and Museo Palatino
Rome, Piazza Santa Maria Nova 53 and Via di San Gregorio 30

Info and reservation:

Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROMA
Tel. 06/85.30.17.58 - Fax 06/85.30.17.56
Email :  service@romeguide.it

Foro Romano
Roma, Largo della Salara Vecchia 5/6

The valley of Foro, nestled between the seven hills of Rome, was in ancient times a marsh. From the end of the seventh century B.C., after the improvement and drainage of the marshes, the Foro Romano (a forum) was constructed and this served as the centre of public life in Rome for over a thousand years. Over the course of the centuries, the various monuments were constructed: firstly, those structures which served political, religious and economic purposes and, later, during the second century B.C., the civil buildings or ‘basilicas’, which functioned as juridical centres. At the end of the Republic era of Ancient Rome, the Foro Romano was inadequate in its functioning as a civil and administrative centre. The various Emperors and their dynasties added only monuments of prestige: The Temple of Vespasian and Titus and that of Antoninus Pio and Faustina dedicated to the memory of the Divine Emperors, the monumental arch of Settimo Severo, built on the extreme west of the square in 203 A.D. to celebrate his military victories. The last great addition was made in the first years of the fourth century A.D. under the Emperor Massenzio, a temple dedicated to the memory of his son Romulus. The imposing Basilica on the Velia was restructured at the end of the fourth century A.D. and the last monument to be erected in the Foro was the Column of 608 A.D. in honour of the Byzantine Emperor Foca.

Copyright © 2003-2007 Pierreci

The Roman Forum, Forum Romanum, (although the Romans called it more often the Forum Magnum or just the Forum) was the central area around which ancient Rome developed, in which commerce and the administration of justice took place. The communal hearth was also located here. It was built on the site of a past cemetery.

Sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the surrounding hills was already raising the level of the forum in early Republican times. Originally it had been marshy ground, which was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima. Its final travertine paving, still visible, dates from the reign of Augustus.

Structures within the Forum

The ruins within the forum clearly show how urban spaces were utilized during the Roman Age. The Roman Forum includes a modern statue of Julius Caesar and the following major monuments, buildings, and ancient ruins:

Temples

Temple of Castor and Pollux
Temple of Saturn
Temple of Vesta
Temple of Venus and Roma
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Temple of Caesar
Temple of Vespasian and Titus
Temple of Concord
Shrine of Venus Cloacina
Basilicas
Basilica Aemilia
Basilica Julia
Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine
Arches
Arch of Septimius Severus
Arch of Titus
Arch of Tiberius
Arch of Augustus
Temple of Saturn
Temple of Castor and Pollux
Temple of Vesta
Temple of Venus and Roma
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Temple of Concord
Campo Vaccino, by Claude Lorrain
The Roman Forum

Other structures

Regia, originally the residence of the kings of Rome or at least their main headquarters, and later the office of the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Roman religion.
Rostra, from where politicians made their speeches to the Roman citizens
Curia Hostilia (later rebuilt as the Curia Julia), the site of the Roman Senate
Tabularium
Gemonian stairs
Clivus Capitolinus was the street that started at the Arch of Tiberius, wound around the Temple of Saturn, and ended at Capitoline Hill.
Umbilicus Urbi, the designated centre of the city from which and to which all distances in Rome and the Roman Empire were measured
Milliarium Aureum
Lapis Niger, a shrine also known as the Black Stone
Atrium Vestae, the house of the Vestal Virgins
A processional street, the Via Sacra, linked the Atrium Vetae with the Colosseum. By the end of the Empire, it had lost its everyday use but remained a sacred place.
Column of Phocas, the last monument built within the Forum
Tullianum, the prison used to hold various foreign leaders and generals.

Excavation and preservation

An anonymous 8th century traveler from Einsiedeln (now in Switzerland) reported that the Forum was already falling apart in his time. During the Middle Ages, though the memory of the Forum Romanum persisted, its monuments were for the most part buried under debris, and its location was designated the "Campo Vaccino" or "cattle field," located between the Capitoline Hill and the Colosseum. The return of Pope Urban V from Avignon in 1367 led to an increased interest in ancient monuments, partly for their moral lesson and partly as a quarry for new buildings being undertaken in Rome after a long lapse. Artists from the late 15th century drew the ruins in the Forum, antiquaries copied inscriptions in the 16th century, and a tentative excavation was begun in the late 18th century.

A cardinal took measures to drain it again and built the Alessandrine neighborhood over it. But the excavation by Carlo Fea, who began clearing the debris from the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1803, and archaeologists under the Napoleonic regime marked the beginning of clearing the Forum, which was only fully excavated in the early 20th century.

Remains from several centuries are shown together, due to the Roman practice of building over earlier ruins.

Other forums in Rome


Other fora existed in other areas of the city; remains of most of them, sometimes substantial, still exist. The most important of these are a number of large imperial fora forming a complex with the Forum Romanum: the Forum Iulium, Forum Augustum, the Forum Transitorium (also: Forum Nervae), and Trajan's Forum. The planners of the Mussolini era removed most of the Medieval and Baroque strata and built the Via dei Fori Imperiali road between the Imperial Fora and the Forum. There is also:

The Forum Boarium, dedicated to the commerce of cattle, between the Palatine Hill and the river Tiber,
The Forum Holitorium, dedicated to the commerce of herbs and vegetables, between the Capitoline Hill and the Servian walls,
The Forum Piscarium, dedicated to the commerce of fish, between the Capitoline hill and the Tiber, in the area of the current Roman Ghetto,
The Forum Suarium, dedicated to the commerce of pork, near the barracks of the cohortes urbanae in the northern part of the campus Martius,
The Forum Vinarium, dedicated to the commerce of wine, in the area now of the "quartiere" Testaccio, between Aventine Hill and the Tiber.
Other markets were known but remain unidentifiable due to a lack of precise information on the function of the sites. Among these, the Forum cuppedinis, was known as a general market for many goods.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TEMPLE OF ROMULUS

History
The so-called Temple of Romulus was dedicated by Emperor Maxentius to his son Valerius Romulus, who died in 309 and was rendered divine honours. It is possible that the temple was in origin the temple of "Iovis Stator" or the one dedicated to Penates, and that Maxentius restored it before the re-dedication.
The ancient Roman fabric was Christianized and dedicated to Sancti Cosma et Damiano in 527, when Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, and his daughter Amalasuntha donated the library of the Forum of Peace (Bibliotheca Pacis) and a portion of the Temple of Romulus to Pope Felix IV. The pope united the two buildings to create a basilica devoted to two Greek brothers and saints, Cosmas and Damian, in contrast with the ancient pagan cult of the two brothers Castor and Pollux, who had been worshipped in the nearby Temple of Castor and Pollux. The apse was decorated with a Roman-Byzantine mosaic, representing a parousia, the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time. The bodies of Saints Mark and Marcellian were translated, perhaps in the ninth century, to this church, where they were rediscovered in 1583 during the reign of Pope Gregory XIII.
In 1632, Pope Urban VIII ordered the restoration of the basilica. The works, projected by Orazio Torriani and directed by Luigi Arrigucci, raised the floor level seven metres, bringing it equal with the Campo Vaccino, thus avoiding the infiltration of water. Also, a cloister was added. The old floor of the basilica is still visible in the lower church, which is actually the lower part of the first church.
In 1947, the restorations of the Imperial Forums gave a new structure to the church. The old entrance, through the Temple of Romulus, was closed, and the temple restored to its original forms; with the Pantheon, the Temple of Romulus is the best preserved pagan temple in Rome. A new entrance was opened on the opposite side (on via dei Fori Imperiali), whose arch gives access to the cloister, and through this to the side of the basilica.

Structure and art
The mosaics, with the parousia of Christ, among saints.Next to the new entrance to the complex, there are the rooms with the original marble paving of the Forum of Peace, and the wall where the 150 marble slabs of the Forma Urbis Romae were hung. Through the cloister, the entrance to the church opens on the side of the single nave. The plan of the basilica followed the norms of the Counter-Reformation: a single nave, with three chapels per side, and the big apse, which now looks quite oversized because of the reduction in height of the 17th century restoration, framed by the triumphal arch, also mutilated by that restoration.
The mosaics are masterpieces of 6th-7th century art. In the middle is Christ, with Saint Peter presenting Saint Cosmas and Saint Teodorus (right), and Saint Paul presenting Saint Damian and Pope Felix IV; the latter holds a model of the church.

The Basilica and the history of medicine
The importance of this Basilica for the history of medicine is not only related to the fact that the two brothers were physicians and became soon patrons of physicians, surgeons, pharmacists and veterinarians, but also to the tradition according to which Claudius Galen himself lectured in the Library of the Temple of Peace (“Bibliotheca Pacis”). Furthermore, for centuries, in this “medical area” roman physicians had their meetings.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Info and reservation:

Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROMA
Tel. 06/85.30.17.58 - Fax 06/85.30.17.56
Email :  service@romeguide.it

Palatino and Museo Palatino
Rome, Piazza Santa Maria Nova 53 and Via di San Gregorio 30

According to ancient tradition, it was on this hill that the first settlement of Rome was made by Romulus in the middle of the eighth century B.C. Excavations have revealed huts and tombs from the Iron Age and, recently, an ancient fortification. The Palatino was also the centre for some important cults as, for example, that of Magna Mater (Cibele). Between the second and first centuries B.C. it became a residential quarter for the Roman aristocracy. In this period the House of Grifi, famous for its pictures, was built. The Emperor Augustus made the Palatino his official power-centre and initiated a building programme which saw the construction of imperial palaces, and various restructuring and enlargement of existing buildings built by previous emperors. The museum is located in Caesar’s Palace where, among the monuments collected from the hill site, various artefacts of Iron Age tombs and works of art from imperial buildings are exhibited. The most stunning of these works of art are the decorative pictures in the lecture room of Isiaca.

Copyright © 2003-2007 Pierreci

Info and reservation:

Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROMA
Tel. 06/85.30.17.58 - Fax 06/85.30.17.56
Email :  service@romeguide.it

FORO ROMANO

Opening hours from 8:30 am to one hour before sunset (Good Friday 8:30 am - 2 pm, June 2 1:30 pm - 7:45 pm):

8:30 am - 4:30 pm from January 2 to February 15
8:30 am - 5 pm from February 16 to March 15
8:30 am - 5:30 pm from March 16 to last Saturday of March
8:30 am - 7:15 pm from last Sunday of March to August 31
8:30 am - 7 pm from September 1 to September 30
8:30 am - 6:30 pm from October 1 to last Saturday of October
8:30 am - 4:30 pm from last Sunday of October to December 31

Closed January 1, December 25. Ticket office closes one hour before closing time

Opening hours from 8:30 am to one hour before sunset (Good Friday 8:30 am - 2 pm, June 2 1:30 pm - 7:45 pm):

8:30 am - 4:30 pm from January 2 to February 15
8:30 am - 5 pm from February 16 to March 15
8:30 am - 5:30 pm from March 16 to last Saturday of March
8:30 am - 7:15 pm from last Sunday of March to August 31
8:30 am - 7 pm from September 1 to September 30
8:30 am - 6:30 pm from October 1 to last Saturday of October
8:30 am - 4:30 pm from last Sunday of October to December 31

Closed January 1, December 25. Ticket office closes one hour before closing time

COLOSSEO/FORO ROMANO and PALATINO valid 2 days:

ADULTS € 11,00 (exhibitions included) + € 1,50 reservation + agency fees

REDUCED FEE € 6,50 (exhibitions included) + € 1,50 reservation + agency fees
for European Union members between 18 and 24 years old

FREE ENTRANCE for persons under 18 and over 65 years old from the European Union

Info and reservation:

Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROMA
Tel. 06/85.30.17.58 - Fax 06/85.30.17.56
Email :  service@romeguide.it

Info and reservation:

Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROMA
Tel. 06/85.30.17.58 - Fax 06/85.30.17.56
Email :  service@romeguide.it