Page 11 - Annuario-2021

© Photo: Archivio fotografico Musei di Brescia - Fotostudio Rapuzzi

CAPITOLIUM
UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE
In the heart of the historic centre of Brescia, there are important archaeological ruins of the most ancient
and most significant buildings of the Roman Brixia, inside one of the largest and richest archaeological
sites of Northern Italy: the Republican Age Sanctuary (1st century BC), the Capitolium (73 AD), the
Amphitheatre (I-III century AD), the paved stretch of the maximum decumanus.
The area also opens on today’s Piazza del Foro, which preserves vestiges of the Roman square (1st
century AC.). The Capitolium, or Capitoline Temple, was built between 73 and 74 BC, above the previous
Republican Sanctuary, during the rule of Emperor Vespasian.
This temple was dedicated to the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.
The interior still preserves the original floors in polychrome marble slabs dating back to the first century
AD. In addition to the Botticino marble altars, inside the three cellae there are a part of the epigraphic
collection of the city and the fragments of the monumental statue of Jupiter and others cult statues, found
during the 19th century.
In 2011 it was declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO, together with the whole monumental
archaeological area of the Roman forum and the Monastic complex of Santa Giulia and San Salvatore, part
of the Longobards in Italy: Places of Power (568 - 774 AD). 13