Forum of Augustus

Rome, Italy

The Forum of Augustus is one of the Imperial forums of Rome, Italy, built by Augustus. It was built in 42 BC to commemorate Augustus' victory at the Battle of Philippi over the assassins of Julius Caesar.

The Temple of Mars Ultor stands in the forum. It was inaugurated in 2 BC and it came to function as the focal point of Roman military strategy. For example, Augustus decreed that it should be the meeting place for the Senate when decisions of war were taken. The temple was also the place where young Roman males were ceremoniously given their adult toga, thus becoming eligible for military service, and it was the official departure point for commanders embarking on military service in the empire.

Behind the temple stands a 30 m high tufa wall which is topped with white travertine. It was constructed to separate the Forum from the hill residences behind it and to act as a firewall should a fire start in this densely-populated area of the city. In the 1st century AD Tiberius added two arches to the temple sides in honour of his two sons Drusus the Younger and Germanicus but these have now been lost except for the foundations of one. In the 2nd century Hadrian repaired parts of the building but from the 5th century the building went into decline and blocks began to be re-used in other building projects.

From the 12th century soil was added to the site and the area used for agriculture, however, as the drains were then blocked, a marsh formed until the area was drained in the 16th century.

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Address

Via Tor de' Conti 10, Rome, Italy
See all sites in Rome

Details

Founded: 42 BC
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Italy

More Information

en.wikipedia.org
www.ancient.eu

Rating

4.7/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Colosseum (0,6 km)
Sistine Chapel (2,8 km)
Arch of Constantine (0,6 km)
St. Peter's Basilica (2,9 km)
Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli (0,3 km)
Altare della Patria (0,3 km)
St. Peter's Square (2,6 km)
Pantheon (1 km)
Vatican Historical Museum (3 km)


Villa d'Este (26,7 km)

User Reviews

Keri Jones (3 months ago)
Glad we were able to visit this area!
Lenín Carrasco Aponte (5 months ago)
Great! Like the man who gave his name
Prince Llama (7 months ago)
Go here early in your trip so you can get a good historical primer and an appreciative idea of the scale of the city you will explore. Make sure its not raining! It's a unique experience that makes learning fun.
Smit Gupta (9 months ago)
Simply superb! Its just awesome how the ruins have been preserved and given a form to an outstanding light and sound show. Highly recommended!!
Alexander A. Plagge (12 months ago)
Amazing imperial Roman forum built in the era of emperor Augustus. It’s smaller than the Fori area on the other side of the street, but nevertheless very impressive. Make sure to visit the surrounding sites as well and soak in the atmosphere of thousands of years old history right in front of you. At night it’s especially beautiful when the multimedia shows illuminate the area.
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Moszna Castle

The Moszna Castle is one of the best known monuments in the western part of Upper Silesia. The history of this building begins in the 17th century, although much older cellars were found in the gardens during excavations carried out at the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the investigators, including H. Barthel, claimed that those cellars could have been remnants of a presumed Templar castle, but their theory has never been proved. After World War II, further excavations discovered a medieval palisade.

The central part of the castle is an old baroque palace which was partially destroyed by fire on the night of April 2, 1896 and was reconstructed in the same year in its original form by Franz Hubert von Tiele-Winckler. The reconstruction works involved an extension of the residence. The eastern Neogothic-styled wing of the building was built by 1900, along with an adjacent orangery. In 1912-1914, the western wing was built in the Neo-Renaissance style. The architectural form of the castle contains a wide variety of styles, thus it can be generally defined as eclectic.

The height of the building, as well as its numerous turrets and spires, give the impression of verticalism. The whole castle has exactly ninety-nine turrets. Inside, it contains 365 rooms. The castle was twice visited by the German Emperor Wilhelm II. His participation in hunting during his stay at the castle was documented in a hand-written chronicle in 1911 as well as in the following year. The castle in Moszna was the residence of a Silesian family Tiele-Winckler who were industrial magnates, from 1866 until the spring of 1945 when they were forced to move to Germany and the castle was occupied by the Red Army. The period of the Soviet control caused significant damage to the castle's internal fittings in comparison to the minor damage caused by WWII.

After World War II the castle did not have a permanent owner and was the home of various institutions until 1972 when it became a convalescent home. Later it became a Public Health Care Centre for Therapies of Neuroses. Nowadays it can be visited by tourists since the health institution has moved to another building in the neighbourhood. The castle also has a chapel which is used as a concert hall. Since 1998 the castle housed a gallery in which works of various artists are presented at regular exhibitions.

Apart from the castle itself, the entire complex includes a park which has no precise boundaries and includes nearby fields, meadows and a forest. Only the main axis of the park can be characterised as geometrical. Starting from the gate, it leads along the oak and then horse-chestnut avenues, towards the castle. Further on, the park passes into an avenue of lime trees with symmetrical canals running along both sides of the path, lined with a few varieties of rhododendrons. The axis of the park terminates at the base of a former monument of Hubert von Tiele-Winckler. On the eastern side of the avenue there is a pond with an islet referred to by the owners as Easter Island. The islet is planted with needle-leaved shrubs and can be reached by a Chinese-styled bridge. The garden, as part of the whole park complex was restored slightly earlier than the castle itself. Preserved documents of 1868 state that the improvement in the garden's aesthetic quality was undertaken by Hubert von Tiele-Winckler.

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