Piazza di Monte Savello, Archaeological site at Monte Savello, Rome, Italy

Piazza di Monte Savello is an archaeological site in Rome where ancient Roman remains sit exposed within a city square setting. The location sits at a major intersection and reveals layers of construction from different periods stacked on top of each other.

The mound formed over the cavea of the Theatre of Marcellus, begun under Augustus; from the late 4th century its stone was quarried for the restoration of the Pons Cestius. By 1086 the Pierleoni held a fortification here, and after the earthquake of 1348 Luca Savelli rebuilt it, giving the site the name Mons Sabellorum. Between 1517 and 1533 Baldassarre Peruzzi remodelled the fortress into a Renaissance palace.

The name Monte Savello comes from the Savelli family, who owned the fortified site from the late 13th century; the earlier name was Monte Faffo or Fabiorum. The gate on the piazza is flanked by two pillars topped with the heraldic bears of the Orsini, who bought the palace in 1729 for 29,000 scudi. Since 1994 the main part of the palace has housed the embassy of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Holy See.

The square sits between two major riverfront roads and is easily walkable from several historical sites in the old city. Keep in mind this is an open plaza with no shelter, so heavy rain can make the remains harder to view clearly.

The hill itself is largely man-made: it grew from the ruins of the Theatre of Marcellus plus river silt deposited by the Tiber. From the late 4th century the theatre's scaenae frons was quarried for stone, much of it reused in restoring the Ponte Cestio.