Capitoline Museums

Museum · Rione Campitelli (Capitoline Hill)Rome,Italy

The oldest public museum anywhere, two Roman palaces facing across Michelangelo's square, standing on the foundations of the city's chief temple.

The Capitoline Museums are the oldest public museum in the world, and they still hold the bronzes they opened with. The she-wolf that became Rome's emblem is here, along with a boy pulling a thorn from his foot. A colossal Constantine survives as a head, a hand and a globe. Two palaces face each other across Michelangelo's square, joined by a passage underneath it, so the whole visit follows one continuous route. A pope started it by giving statues away. In 1471 Sixtus IV handed a group of ancient bronzes from his own Lateran palace to the people of Rome and had them set up on this hill. The gesture was political: the hill had held the city's chief temple, and it was still where Romans governed themselves. Halfway through, the route drops onto the squared foundation blocks of that temple and comes out in the Tabularium, an ancient records office whose arched openings look straight down the Forum. For a collection this important it is quiet.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The Tabularium gallery can close early without notice — when the city runs an event on the square above, that wing and the Palazzo Nuovo shut hours before the rest of the museum.
Go in through the right-hand palace and take the underground passage to the other one — the two buildings are joined below the square, so you never come back out and start again.
Look at the twins under the she-wolf and notice they were added later — they date from the late fifteenth century, and the bronze animal above them was cast without them.

Things to do

1
Look down the Forum from inside the Tabularium
At the end of the route a corridor of ancient arches opens onto the Forum valley. Stand at one of the openings and the ruins lie directly below, framed by Roman stonework rather than a railing. Late in the day the light comes down the length of the valley toward you.
2
Piece together the giant statue of Constantine
The first courtyard holds a marble head taller than you are, with a hand, a foot, a kneecap and a sphere set along the walls. Work out the pose from the pieces. The emperor sat with one arm raised, filling the apse of the huge hall beside the Forum, which still stands today.
3
Walk right around the bronze horseman
The bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback stands on a low base in a glazed hall, so you can circle it at eye level. Look for the gilding still lying in the folds of the cloak. Look too at the raised front hoof, which medieval descriptions say once had a bound figure crouching beneath it.