DK Travel : Rome : Ancient Rome : History & Culture

Baths of Caracalla

Inaugurated in 217 and used until 546, when invading Goths destroyed the aqueducts. Up to 2,000 people at a time could use these luxurious thermae . In general, Roman baths included social centres, art galleries, libraries, brothels and palestrae (exercise areas). Bathing involved taking a sweat bath, a steam bath, a cool-down, then a cold plunge. The Farnese family’s ancient sculpture collection was found here, including Hercules , a signed Greek original. Today, ruins of individual rooms can be seen.

Gymnasia, Baths of Caracalla
Musei Capitolini

Notwithstanding their great beauty, the original motivation for these museums was purely political. When the popes started the first museum here in 1471, it laid claim to Rome’s hopes for civic autonomy – the Palazzo dei Conservatori was the seat of hated papal counsellors, who ran the city by “advising” the Senators. Today the museums are home to a spectacular collection of art.
Piazza of the Knights of Malta

Everyone comes here for the famous bronze keyhole view of St Peter’s Basilica, ideally framed by an arbour of perfect trees (see Knights of Malta Keyhole). However, it’s also worth a look for the piazza’s wonderful 18th-century decoration by Giambattista Piranesi, otherwise renowned for his powerful engravings of fantasy-antiquity scenes. To honour the ancient order of crusading knights (founded in 1080), the architect chose to adorn the walls with dwarf obelisks and trophy armour, in the ancient style. Originally based on the island of Rhodes, then Malta, the knights are now centred in Rome.
Protestant Cemetery

Also called the Acattolica (Non-Catholic) Cemetery, people of many faiths have been sepulchred here since 1738. The most famous denizens are the English poets Keats and Shelley (see Writers in Rome). Until 1870, crosses and references to salvation were forbidden.
Pyramid of Caius Cestius

This 12 BC edifice remains a truly imposing monument to the wealthy Tribune of the People for whom it was built. It stands 36 m (118 ft) high and took 330 days to erect, according to an inscription carved into its stones. Unlike Egyptian originals, however, it was built of brick then covered with marble, which was the typically pragmatic, Roman way of doing things.
Roman Forum and Palatine Hill

Once the heart of the Roman empire, this mass of ruins is an eerie landscape that seems gripped by the ghosts of an ancient civilization (see Roman Forum).
San Saba

Originally a 7th-century oratory for Palestinian monks fleeing their homeland, the present church is a 10th-century renovation, with many additions. The portico of the beautiful 15th-century loggia houses a wealth of archaeological fragments. Greek style in floorplan, with three apses, the interior decoration is mostly Cosmatesque (see Cosmatesque Pavement). The greatest oddity is a 13th-century fresco showing St Nicholas about to toss a bag of gold to three naked girls lying on a bed, thus saving them from prostitution.
San Teodoro

At the foot of the Palatine, this small, circular, 6th-century church is one of Rome’s hidden treasures. St Theodore was martyred on this spot, and his church was built into the ruins of a great horrea (grain warehouse) that stood here. The apse mosaic showing Christ seated upon an orb is original, but the Florentine cupola (1454) and other treatments are mostly 15th-century restorations ordered by Pope Nicholas V. The courtyard was designed by Carlo Fontana in 1705.
Santa Sabina

This church was built over the Temple of Juno Regina in about 425 to honour a martyred Roman matron. In 1936–8 it was restored almost to its original condition, while retaining 9th-century additions such as the Cosmatesque work and the bell tower. Twenty-four perfectly matched Corinthian columns are surmounted by arcades with marble friezes and light filters through the selenite window panes. The doors are 5th-century carved cypress, with 18 panels of biblical scenes, including the earliest known Crucifixion – strangely without any crosses.
The Colosseum and Imperial Fora

These monuments memorialize Imperial supremacy. The Forum of Trajan was declared a Wonder of the World by contemporaries; the only remnant is Trajan’s Column, considered to represent Roman sculptural art at its peak. The Colosseum embodies the Romans’ passion for brutal entertainment.