5 Ancient Roman Monuments & How They Survived to the Modern Day

The city of Rome was the beating heart of the Roman Empire, which spanned from the rise of Augustus in around 27 BCE until the last emperor was deposed in 476 CE. During the reign of the Roman Empire, many great structures were erected in Rome, ranging from grand arenas and decadent bathhouses to elaborate tombs and towering temples. Many of the great structures built by the ancient Romans still stand today, largely because they were restored and repurposed by later populations of the city. This article will look at the evolution of five of these incredible buildings, from ancient Roman monuments to modern attractions.

Looking at this beautiful castle, one might assume that Castel Sant’Angelo, or the Castle of the Holy Angel, used to be a Medieval fortress, before becoming the museum that it is today. While it did serve as a fortress in Medieval times, it is much older, built in around 135 CE during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. He intended it to serve as a colossal mausoleum for himself and his family.

The tomb’s primary architect was Decriannus, who took inspiration from the Mausoleum of Augustus (which one can also still visit today). It in turn was inspired by the tomb of Alexander the Great. This pattern of copying the monuments of one’s predecessors was common in ancient Rome because one wanted to emulate and associate oneself with past great rulers.

Many emperors and their wives were laid to rest in Castel Sant’Angelo after Hadrian, including Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla, but their remains are no longer there.

The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 CE, and a few centuries later, the Pope assumed sole authority over Rome and its neighboring territories. With Hadrian’s Mausoleum in a convenient location on the Tiber River, and with its colossal size and strength, it was a natural point of defense in case of an attack on the papacy. It transformed slowly into a fortress throughout the Middle Ages. It still contains a concealed passageway, called the Passetto di Borgo, which connects the Vatican to the Castle to safely evacuate the papal state in an emergency. A baptismal font in St. Peter’s Basilica is also a repurposed sarcophagus lid from Castel Sant’Angelo, possibly belonging to Hadrian himself.

Roman bathhouses were part of daily life for every person of every class throughout the empire. Their primary purpose was for bathing and relaxing, but they also served as a space for people to mingle, gossip, and discuss business or politics. The Baths of Diocletian were built in 306 CE by the emperor Maximian, who named them in honor of his co-emperor.

Spanning eleven acres of land, they were the largest imperial baths ever built. The three main rooms of the complex were the frigidarium (cold room), tepidarium (room temperature), and the caldarium (hot room). Each room had pools of water corresponding to its name and all three rooms were placed at the center of the complex. Other rooms included the palestra (or gym), changing rooms, libraries, and offices, as well as outdoor gardens. One can still visit this gigantic structure today, but it doesn’t quite look the same.

Parts of the bath complex are still visible in the National Roman Museum. Perhaps the best-preserved part is the Aula Ottagona, or Octagonal Hall. The Aula Ottagona is thought to have been a smaller frigidarium when the bathhouse was functioning. After closing down in 537 CE, it served several other purposes. Throughout the 19th century it was used as a gymnastics school and a film room. In 1928 the baths became part of the largest planetarium in Europe. Metal webbing from this time is still included in the building despite being restored to its original ancient appearance at the start of the 21st century.

The last main part of the structure was turned into a church called Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs). It was built inside the baths’ central frigidarium in the 16th century by Renaissance artist Michaelangelo. Through the baroque interior and Renaissance paintings, visitors can still see the original domed ceiling of the cold room. Michaelangelo wanted to preserve and adapt the ancient structure, which is why much of the church’s architecture remains the same as when it was a bathhouse.

In the early Roman Empire, it was common to raise a deceased emperor to the status of a god through a deification process. This often included building a temple dedicated to the new god. The first to do this was Emperor Augustus, who declared Julius Caesar a god and built him a temple in the center of the Roman Forum, the political and religious hub of the city. Hadrian was another emperor who received this honor.

Emperor Hadrian died in 138 CE and his successor, the emperor Antoninus Pius, dedicated a temple to the deified Hadrian in 145 CE located in the Campus Martius, near the Pantheon. Though most of the temple has been destroyed, 11 of the 38 original 15-meter-tall columns remain on its north side, along with one of its original walls, albeit without its marble façade.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, many of Rome’s temples fell into obscurity. For a time, the temple of Hadrian was erroneously referred to as the Basilica or the Temple of Neptune. In 1695, Pope Innocent XII commissioned architect Carlo Fontana to build a new papal palace on the site of the old temple. Fontana was able to incorporate the remains into the building. In the 1830s, the palace became the home of Rome’s stock exchange. Today it serves as a conference and multipurpose building for the Chamber of Commerce of Rome. The ancient façade reminds tourists and locals alike of the rich history of Rome.

The Flavian Amphitheater, better known as the Colosseum, was completed in 80 CE and was the largest amphitheater in the Roman Empire. Built by emperors Vespasian and Titus, it was constructed to revitalize the city after the turbulent civil war of 69 CE, but also to highlight the power of the new Flavian imperial family. Known around the world for its gladiatorial games, criminal executions, and mock naval battles, the structure stands as a true testament to ancient Roman culture. However, after several invasions and civil wars, Rome fell into financial difficulties, meaning the spectacles ceased and maintenance of the arena was neglected.

The Colosseum saw its last fight in 523 CE. After that, it stood abandoned and unused for some time before later residents of Rome started using it for a number of purposes. The arena floor was used as a burial ground, and then the vaults underneath the stands were converted into commercial and residential spaces. Many stores, workshops, and even stables operated out of these spaces, with small homes interspersed throughout, well into the 12th century.

Citizens also used the dilapidated stone structure as a makeshift quarry. Around the year 1200, the Frangipani family, a wealthy aristocratic Roman family, took control of the Colosseum and turned it into a fortress, even building tunnels to connect it with their other homes in the city. But their control of the former amphitheater did not last long. In the mid-13th century, Pope Innocent IV claimed the site in the name of the Catholic Church. The Church tried and failed to implement several different projects in the Colosseum over the next few centuries, including a hospital, a wool factory, and a bullfighting ring, as well as several small chapels.

By the 17th century, the structure was abandoned yet again, until 1749, when Pope Benedict XIV designated it a place of worship and a shrine to the Christian martyrs who were killed there. Many excavation and restoration projects took place at the Colosseum throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, turning it into a museum and one of the most visited archaeological sites in the world.

Located in the heart of modern Rome, the Pantheon is one of the city’s most popular and stunning tourist attractions. Meaning “relating, or common to all the gods,” the Pantheon was a temple dedicated to all the gods in Roman mythology. It was originally built in 27 BCE by Marcus Agrippa, a Roman general, statesman and architect who was Emperor Augustus’ right hand man. He placed cult statues of several gods (including Venus, Mars, and Jupiter) inside the temple, along with statues of himself and Augustus on the outside. The temple was open for public worship. However, the temple was burned down in a fire in 80 CE, rebuilt by the emperor Domitian, and then destroyed again in 110 CE when it was struck by lightning. Due to this, much of its original history is lost.

We know more about what happened to the Pantheon after the fall of the Roman Empire. In 608, Pope Boniface IV requested the Pantheon be consecrated, and by 613, the Byzantine emperor Phocas granted that request. It was given to the Catholic Church and was the first Roman temple to be converted into a Christian Church. The pope renamed it St. Mary and the Martyrs, a name it still keeps today. Many of its marble decorations were kept or restored, but the cult statues and other pagan objects were removed and replaced with Christian ones. In fitting with its new name, Pope Boniface IV had the remains of martyrs transferred from Christian catacombs to the new church.

Today, the Pantheon continues as a church, but it is also the final resting place of several notable people in Italy’s history, including Vittorio Emanuele II (the first modern Italian king), his son Umberto, Umberto’s wife Margherita, and the Renaissance artist Raphael.

When you visit Rome today, its long and eclectic history feels extremely present in the surrounding architecture. Throughout the history of the city buildings have been adapted, repurposed, and transformed, rather than torn down to make way for new construction. Fortunately for modern history lovers, the Romans have always understood the importance of preserving physical reminders of history, while creatively incorporating them for modern day use.