Urban renewal project dates back 19 years.
Rome’s new-look Piazza Augusto Imperatore, the public square around the Mausoleum of Augustus in the heart of the city centre, was inaugurated on Friday by mayor Roberto Gualtieri.
The new pedestrian area in the shadow of the landmark site, the largest circular tomb of the ancient world, was opened to the public after five years of construction work, in a major project that dates back two decades.
The tomb of Rome’s first emperor and its surrounding piazza have been at the centre of parallel restoration and redevelopment works in a €35 million project overseen by the city’s archaeological superintendency.
Under the plans drawn up by architect Francesco Cellini, the winner of an international design competition in 2006, the city has reorganised the public space around the landmark monument.
Rome unveils the new-look Piazza Augusto Imperatore at the Mausoleum of Augustus pic.twitter.com/nyRvEEotNo
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Cellini’s plan involved integrating the mausoleum into an urban context by making the surrounding spaces fully usable and resolving the disparity in height between the Mausoleum and the square, originally designed by Vittorio Morpurgo in the 1930s.
The new square features two wide graded slopes in travertine – one towards Via di Ripetta, the other towards the church of San Carlo al Corso – connecting the current street level with the original level of the mausoleum.
A large info point and cafeteria space has been created at the southern end of the piazza, which is located between Via del Corso and Richard Meier’s Ara Pacis Museum.
The overall cost of the project is €35 million, of which around €28 million was financed by the city of Rome along with the contribution of €6 million from the TIM Foundation.
Piazza Augusto Imperatore. Photo Monkeys Video Lab.
The inauguration of the new space coincides with the beginning of the third and final phase of works to complete the restoration of the Mausoleum of Augustus which is set to open as a museum at the end of next year.
The first phase of restoration works at the ancient monument was concluded in 2019, with the public first admitted on a limited basis in 2021.
The second phase of works, scheduled to be finished later this year, includes a circular walkway overlooking the mausoleum.
The final phase of works involves the lighting, accessibility and completion of the museum’s interior design and display areas, entrusted to Dutch architect Rem Koolhass and funded with €700,000 from luxury jeweller Bulgari which opened an award-winning hotel opposite the mausoleum in 2023.
After cutting the ribbon in the new piazza on Friday, Mayor Gualtieri said: “We are happy to have contributed to the creation of what will become one of the most important focal points in the city of Rome”.
Constructed in 28 BC, the Mausoleum of Augustus was used as a concert hall in the late 19th- and early 20th century, and in the late 1930s the surrounding mediaeval buildings were demolished by Mussolini.
In recent decades the ancient site has been the subject of numerous stalled renovation projects, including one which would have seen it ready in 2014 in time to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the death of Augustus.
Photos Monkeys Video Lab
