Mausoleum of Augustus

In 28 BC e. Augustus began to build a tomb for himself and his loved ones in the center of the Field of Mars. The travertine structure repeated the shape of the Etruscan burial grounds - tumulus : the base was a cylindrical structure (87 m in diameter), drums of a smaller diameter towered above it (total height was 44 m), the last drum was crowned with a statue of the emperor, and around the mausoleum there was a terrace with columns. The terrace overlooked the roof of a larger drum; evergreen trees grew on the roof.

Inside were urns with ashes of members of the imperial family: the emperor himself, his wife Livia , sister Octavia , nephew Marcellus , as well as the emperors Tiberius , Claudius and Nerva , other representatives of the Yuliev clan Klavdiev and famous Roman figures were buried here.

Before the entrance to the mausoleum there were two obelisks (possibly symbols of the victory of Augustus over Anthony and Cleopatra ) and bronze plates with the biography of Augustus. Now one of them adorns the square in front of the Quirinale ( Piazza del Quirinale ), and the second stands on the Piazza del Esquilino ( Piazza Esquilino ), behind the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore .

“The architecture of the August era, which was distinguished by its classic character, was open to Hellenistic influences. She does not ignore, as the treatise of Vitruvius confirms, the Etruscan traditions, including them in the ideal of ancient art . When Augustus orders to build a mausoleum for himself, then it merges the eastern idea of ​​the monumentality of the royal tomb and the concept of the Etruscan tumulus : on an enormous cylindrical base rises an earthen hill covered with cypresses ” ^[1] .

With the fall of the Roman Empire, the mausoleum fell into decay, and in the 8th century it was plundered. In the XII century, the building was turned into a fortress owned by the Colonna clan. In 1241, by order of Pope Gregory IX, the fortress was destroyed. On the ruins arranged urban garden. In the XVI-XVII centuries. the Soderini family arranged hanging gardens decorated with statues on the ruins of the mausoleum, and kept a collection of Roman antiquities in the interior. Since the 18th century, the remains of the mausoleum have been used as a platform for various public performances and exhibitions.

In 1907, the municipality of Rome bought the building from private owners. A year later, a concert hall opened here called Auditorium Augusteo, which worked until 1936 ^[2] .

In 1926, archaeological excavations were carried out, and the remains of the building were restored.

In 1938, another monument was erected next to the mausoleum, associated with the name of Augustus - the Altar of Peace , whose elements were excavated during excavations in Corso .

On March 4, 2016, the Commissar-Prefect of Francesco Paolo Tronca approved a project for the allocation of 6 million euros for preliminary work on the restoration of the monument ^[3] .

• Mausoleum of Hadrian
• Altar of Peace

•   Mausoleum of Augustus : thematic media files on Wikimedia Commons