Museo dell'Ara Pacis

Lonely Planet review

After years of controversy and on-off construction, architect Richard Meier's luminous glass-and-travertine pavilion was finally unveiled in 2006. The first modern construction in Rome's centro storico since WWII, it now threatens to upstage what it's meant to highlight - the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Peace), Augustus' great monument to the peace he established at home and abroad.

One of the most important works of ancient Roman sculpture, the altar was completed in 13 BC and positioned near Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucina, slightly to the southeast of its current site. The location was calculated so that on Augustus' birthday the shadow of a huge sundial on Campo Marzio would fall directly on it.

Over the centuries it fell victim to Rome's avid art collectors, and panels ended up in the Medici collection, the Vatican and the Louvre. However, in 1936 Mussolini unearthed the remaining parts and decided to re-assemble them in the present location.

Of the reliefs, the most important depicts Augustus at the head of a procession, followed by priests, the general Marcus Agrippa and the entire imperial family.