Trajan's Market Site Features

The great hemicycle

The curved multi-storey facade that follows the line of Trajan's Forum. The single most recognisable thing here, and best understood from the terrace above rather than from the street below.

The Torre delle Milizie

The "militia tower", built into the complex in 1300. It is the medieval silhouette on the skyline above the Roman brick, and the physical evidence that the site was defended rather than quarried.

The Museum of the Imperial Fora

Opened in 2007 and holding material from all of ancient Rome's forums. It is the only place the whole sequence of imperial forums is presented together, which makes it the right stop before or after walking the Via dei Fori Imperiali.

The upper terrace

Looks down over the Forum of Trajan and across to the Vittoriano. The best vantage point in the complex, and the reason to go up before working down.

The medieval floors

Levels inserted during the Middle Ages and never removed. Several rooms are therefore Roman spaces at a height the Romans did not use — worth noticing rather than walking past.