Statue of Roman Emperor Augustus wearing the toga.
(National Roman Museum - Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome, Italy)
- The Mausoleum of first Roman Emperor Augustus in Rome, Italy on December 18, 2020. Closed for the last 14 years, it will reopen finally in Spring 2021. Although this is the largest circular funerary monument in the Roman world, it was left in a ruinous condition for decades. It has been closed to the public for much of the last 80 years, with access stopped completely in 2007. After a restoration project costing 10 millions euros the Mausoleum of Augustus will once again welcome visitors and is due to open on March 1, 2021. Besides being the final resting place of the Roman Empire’s first Emperor Augustus (63BC-14AD), the ashes of a number of other important people were also laid to rest here : Augustus’s wife Livia, Germanicus, Roman Emperors Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nerva. Built in 28 BC on the Campus Martius in Rome, this great tomb is the largest in the Roman world. The structure consists of various concentric rings and was originally topped by a conical roof. The completed circular mausoleum had a diameter of 87 metres and it is thought a height around 42 metres. At the heart of the mausoleum there were a series of chambers, which once held the urns of the Imperial family. These inner chambers were reached by a narrow corridor from the entrance, on either side of which stood two pink granit obelisks. The mausoleum was heavily damaged by the Visigoths during the sack of Rome in 410 AD. Photo by Eric Vandeville/ABACAPRESS.COM