Museum of the Ara Pacis, Archaeological museum in Lungotevere Augusta, Rome, Italy.
The Museum of the Ara Pacis is an archaeological museum in Lungotevere Augusta, Rome, holding a monumental ancient Roman altar within a modern glass and steel pavilion. The light-filled structure beside the Tiber allows visitors to walk around the monument and view finely carved marble reliefs on all four sides.
The Roman Senate commissioned the original altar and dedicated it to Emperor Augustus in 9 BC to celebrate peace across the empire. Centuries later, fragments buried beneath river sediment were recovered from under a Renaissance palace and reassembled at their current site.
Carvings on the monument show members of the imperial family taking part in a formal procession, where the toga and ritual gestures reflect the public nature of the ceremony. Visitors can also see plant motifs and sacrifice scenes that recall religious practices from the age of Augustus.
The museum opens daily from 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM, with adjusted hours on December 24 and 31 and closure on January 1. Mornings or weekdays tend to be less crowded, making it easier to study the carvings at close range.
The altar originally stood at a different spot on the Campus Martius, but floods and later construction buried it completely beneath several meters of earth. Rediscovery and recovery stretched over decades, as parts of the monument lay beneath occupied buildings.
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