Trajan’s Forum - Rome, Italy - Marble Path toward Trajan’s Column

An ancient geometric marble pavement leads through the ruins of Trajan’s Forum toward Trajan’s Column and the historic churches of central Rome.

A surviving section of geometric marble pavement draws the eye through the archaeological remains of Trajan’s Forum in the historic center of Rome. Beyond the ancient paving, Trajan’s Column rises prominently in the background, while the dome of Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano forms part of the later cityscape surrounding the Imperial Fora. Trajan’s Forum was the last and most monumental of Rome’s Imperial Fora, inaugurated in AD 112 after an enormous engineering project that removed part of the Quirinal Hill to create approximately 4.2 hectares of building space. The complex included a vast rectangular square bordered by colonnaded porticoes and the enormous Basilica Ulpia. Trajan’s Column, completed in AD 113, commemorated the emperor’s campaigns in Dacia and survives as one of the forum’s most recognizable monuments. This view is particularly evocative because the patterned pavement creates a visual route from the archaeological foreground toward monuments representing different periods of Rome’s long history.