Museo dell'Ara Pacis

The Museo dell'Ara Pacis by architect Richard Meier is the only large contemporary structure built in the historic centre of Rome since the Second World War.

If you had lived in Rome 2,000 years ago, you would be very, very old now. But also important: you would have been alive at the time of Augustus, the first Roman emperor (and nephew of Julius Caesar).

His reign inaugurated a period known as Pax Romana (the Roman Peace), a two-century period during which the Roman Empire was largely free from large-scale conflict.

L'Ara Pacis ("Altar of Peace") was the way Augustus declared his commitment to peace. Admire the Altar of Peace, originally inaugurated in 9 BC and later buried for centuries, and much more as you delve into living history. An altar dedicated to Pax, the Roman deity