Trajan’s Market

"Trajan's Markets" is the modern name of an extensive complex of brick buildings, articulated on several levels with architectural solutions of great interest: it was built at the same time as the Forum of Trajan, at the beginning of the second century AD, to occupy and support the cutting of the slopes of the Quirinal Hill.

 

Ricostruzione grafica di via Biberatica nei Mercati di Traiano

Due to the continuity of their use over time, the buildings of the "Markets" also have the traces of numerous subsequent interventions, ranging from the Roman age to the great discovering, restoration and integration works of the years 1926-1934.
The lower part, starting from the level of the Forum, includes the Great Hemicycle, on three floors, the two end rooms at the ends and the Small Hemicycle again on three floors.
The upper part is separated from the lower one by a paved road, the Via Biberatica, on top of which the Central Body building rises, with rooms at street level and on the three floors above. Towards the north the street bends and then gets lost under the current Via Quattro Novembre, flanked on top by the Great Hall complex, with the vast central space overlooked by a series of rooms on several levels. Towards the south, the road connected to the current Via della Salita del Grillo, which overlooked a multi-storey block with traces of post-ancient interventions.
Behind the Great Hall and the Central Body there is a second paved path, the Via della Torre and in an area currently arranged as a garden, other Roman structures, on which the medieval Torre delle Milizie (13th century) was built.

Viaggio virtuale nella Grande Aula

Mercati di Traiano, Via Biberatica

To know more:

The monument

History of the "Markets" of Trajan