Basilica Ulpia - Trajan’s Forum, Rome - Ancient Columns beneath Baroque Domes

The surviving columns and marble pavement of the Basilica Ulpia stand within Trajan’s Forum, framed by Trajan’s Column and the domed churches of central Rome.

The Basilica Ulpia formed one of the most important monumental buildings within Trajan’s Forum, the last and most ambitious of Rome’s Imperial Fora. Built between AD 106 and 113 under Emperor Trajan and associated with the architect Apollodorus of Damascus, the immense basilica was used for judicial, administrative and commercial activities and was the largest basilica constructed in ancient Rome. In this photograph, surviving columns, reconstructed architectural elements and sections of coloured marble paving reveal part of the basilica’s former scale. To the left rises Trajan’s Column, erected in AD 113 and decorated with a continuous spiral relief depicting the emperor’s campaigns in Dacia. Behind the archaeological remains, the domes of Santa Maria di Loreto and Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano add much later Renaissance and Baroque layers to the view. The scene captures Rome’s remarkable ability to place nearly two thousand years of architectural history within a single panorama.