The Ara Pacis, Rome

I have a few favorite places in Rome. This is one of them.

Located on the banks of the Tiber River, it is currently situated approximately where it would have been when built by Augustus. It is also next to the as yet unexcavated Mausoleum of Augustus. The museum housing the altar was designed by Richard Meier and while some critics don’t like the building, I do. I like the size, the design, the use of glass, the whiteness of the whole including the altar itself.

The Ara Pacis Augustae (Latin, “Altar of Augustan Peace”) is an altar in Rome dedicated to the Pax Romana. The monument was commissioned by the Roman Senate on July 4, 13 BC to honor the return of Augustus to Rome after three years in Hispania and Gaul and consecrated on January 30, 9 BC.

Originally located on the northern outskirts of Rome, a Roman mile from the boundary of the pomerium on the west side of the Via Flaminia, the Ara Pacis stood in the northeastern corner of the Campus Martius, the former flood plain of the Tiber River and gradually became buried under 4 metres (13 ft) of silt deposits. It was reassembled in its current location, now the Museum of the Ara Pacis, in 1938, turned 90° counterclockwise from its original orientation so that the original western side now faces south.