Foro Romano - Curia

The Curia, meeting-place of the Roman Senate, is one of the best preserved ancient buildings in the Forum. The first such building was erected in the time of the kings, and thereafter rebuilding was frequently necessary as a result of fires and other forms of destruction in the time of Sulla, Caesar, Augustus, Diocletian, Julian and Apostate, etc. Finally in the seventh century the Curia was converted into a church and was thus preserved from further destruction. Borromini adapted its bronze doors to serve as the main doorway of St John Lateran. The Curia, a plain and unornamented building both externally and internally, was stripped of later accretions between 1931 and 1937. It is now sometimes used for special exhibitions. The building measures 27x18m/90x60ft internally, and could seat some 300 senators. It preserves fragments of a colored marble floor. Here, too, are displayed the Anaglyphs of Trajan, two travertine slabs with reliefs depicting the Emperor and the people of Rome.