Capitoline Hill, Sacred hill in Rome, Italy

Capitoline Hill rises 45 meters above the city between the Forum and Campo Marzio and is the smallest of Rome's seven hills. Two peaks form the structure: one holds the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, the other the Renaissance palaces around Michelangelo's square.

Etruscan kings built the first large temple on the summit in the sixth century before Christ and made it the religious center of Rome. Centuries later Michelangelo redesigned the piazza in the 1530s and changed the orientation of the hill from the Forum toward Saint Peter's.

The name Capitolium first meant the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus and only later the whole hill; Latin caput, "head", links to the skull found when its foundations were dug. The English word capitol and Washington's Capitol Hill are assumed to derive from it.

The wide Cordonata staircase leads gently from street level up to the square and is easy for all visitors to manage. Those who come early in the morning find the piazza and steps quieter and have better light for photos.

The hill was first called Mons Saturnius, after the god Saturn, before the name Capitolium passed from the Temple of Jupiter to the whole hill. Ancient sources tied that name to caput, "head", through the tale of a human skull found while the temple foundations were dug.