Column of Marcus Aurelius

The monument - also known as the Aurelian Column - commemorates emperor Marcus Aurelius' military campaigns against Germanic tribes and the Sarmatians, nomadic tribes who lived near the Black Sea.
It is modeled on Trajan's Column, built 80 years earlier after emperor Trajan's successful campaign in Dacia.

The Aurelian Column is some 30 meter high (100 Roman feet) and formed of 28 blocks of carrara marble. It is put on a large rectangular pedestal - at the time almost 4 meters high - and bears a spiraling band of reliefs depicting events during the imperial campaigns in the north. The lower part shows the campaign against the Germanic tribes between 169 and 173 AD and the upper part shows the campaign against the Sarmatians between 174 and 176 AD.

The reliefs are deeper and more expressive than those on the column of Trajan, but they are also less refined and the compositions have a lower quality. Inside the column, which has a diameter of 3,7 meter , is a spiraling staircase that leads to a platform at the top on which a statue of Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina the younger used to stand. This statue was replaced by a statue of st. Paul, the original has disappeared.

There are no traces left of the nearby Temple of the Deified Marcus, but the Column of Marcus Aurelius still stands at its original location. It is now at the center of a small rectangular square, the Piazza Colonna, named after the column. The square is bordered by the Via del Corso on one side and palazzos on the other sides. Between the column and the Via del Corso is a small fountain built in 1575 by Giacomo Della Porta.