Trajan's Market

Trajan's Market - The ruins of trading buildings on the forum of Trajan in Rome .

Sight
Trajan's Market
Mercatus traiani
A country	Italy
Forum of Trajan	Via dei Fori Imperiali / via IV Novembre
Builder	Apollodorus of Damascus
Architect
Established
Construction	100 - 112 years
condition	ruins open to the public
Website

The five-story shopping complex was built in the years 100 - 112 by Appolodor of Damascus in the form of terraces on the side of a hill. There were about 150 shops, taverns, eateries, as well as points of free distribution of products to the population. Each shop had an exit ( vitrina ) to the street. The shops sold spices, fruits, wine, olive oil, fish, silk and other goods from the East. In the middle of the market was Via Biberatica , a street named after the taverns on it.

Trayan's market is interesting for its architectural construction using concrete and brick: the basis of the wall was a mixture of concrete with stones, which allowed to increase the height of the structure to five floors; the walls were bricked. The market was separated from the forum of Trajan by a fire wall.

In the Middle Ages, the complex was completed with separate structures, including the Police Tower (c. 1200), and residential buildings, which were demolished in 1924. Intensive excavations of the market were carried out at Mussolini (1930-33).

In the XXI century, the remains of the market are museumified ^[1] . The museum exhibits fragments of marble decoration of other lost constructions of the Trajan forum, discovered during excavations of the 1930s.