Roman Forum

Published: August 12, 2026 · Updated: August 12, 2026

The Forum was the civic centre of the Roman republic and empire: senate house, treasury, law courts and the road every triumph took. It spent the Middle Ages as a cattle pasture and was dug out in the nineteenth century.

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Overview

What survives is a shallow valley of foundations with a few whole buildings among them, and the whole ones survived by being converted: the Curia Julia, where the senate met, is intact because it became a church in 630. The Via Sacra runs the length of it, past the Temple of Saturn that held the treasury, the House of the Vestals, and the arches of Titus and Septimius Severus. Reading it needs a plan; without one it is a field of stones.

Highlights

Start at the Arch of Titus end and walk down, which is the direction of a triumph and puts the Capitoline ahead of you. Climb the Palatine above it for the view over the whole Forum, included in the same ticket and much emptier. The Curia is open and worth going inside for the one Roman interior here that still has its walls and floor.

Roman Forum

Overview

Highlights

Location