Ruin sights in Rome
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Roman Forum
In ancient Rome, a forum was a covered market, civic centre and religious complex all rolled into one. The centre of public life, it was richly decorated and grandly scaled. Today a sprawl of underlabelled ruins, the Roman Forum is still impressive – overlook it from Palazzo Senatorio behind Piazza del Campidoglio to set your imagination in gear. The oldest and most famous of Rome’s forums, it was originally an Etruscan burial ground, first developed in the 7th century BC and expanding over 900 years to become the gleaming heart of the Roman Republic.
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B
Forum Boarium
Piazza della Bocca della Verità stands on what was once Ancient Rome’s cattle market (Forum Boarium). Opposite Chiesa Santa Maria in Cosmedin are two tiny Roman temples dating to the 2nd century BC: the round Tempio di Ercole Vincitore and the Tempio di Portunus, dedicated to the god of rivers and ports, Portunus. Just off the piazza, the Arco di Giano (Arch of Janus) is a four-sided Roman arch that once covered a crossroads. Beyond it is the medieval Chiesa di San Giorgio in Velabro, a beautiful, atmospheric church, the original 7th-century portico of which was completely destroyed by a Mafia bomb attack in 1993.
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C
Largo di Torre Argentina
A busy transport hub, Largo di Torre Argentina is set around the sunken Area Sacra and the remains of four Republican-era temples. These ruins are off-limits to humans but home to a thriving population of 250 stray cats and a cat sanctuary. To visit the ruins, some of the oldest in Rome, the sanctuary runs a free guided tour at 4pm on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. On the piazza’s western flank is Rome’s premier theatre, the Teatro Argentina, built close to the spot where Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 BC.
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