This Is the First Public Museum in the World

The Capitoline Museums are regarded as the first public museum in the world. Housed in two buildings, they have a fantastic collection of antique Roman bronze and marble sculptures, medieval and Renaissance paintings, and beautiful frescoes, as well as one of the most incredible views of the Roman Forum.

The Capitoline Museums are housed on Michelangelo’s beautiful trapezoidal Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome’s Capitol and government seat. Pope Sixtus IV, the same Pope who supported the construction of the Sistine Chapel, gifted a collection of notable bronze sculptures to the citizens of Rome in 1471. The Capitoline Museums gradually expanded to include many art pieces, and Pope Clement XII proclaimed the museums accessible to the public in 1734. This was the first time that art became widely accessible and loved by all people, and it had far-reaching consequences in the decades that followed.

Bronze Statues at Palazzo dei Conservatori

As you ascend the stairs to Piazza del Campidoglio, the Palazzo dei Conservatori, the structure on your right, is the place to start your museum tour. You’ll see striking bits of the Colossus of Constantine monument in the courtyard: a gigantic pointed finger, a large foot. Welcome to Rome, where even a disassembled statue is a piece of beauty in its own right.

The Palazzo dei Conservatory’s first rooms were initially the Conservators’ (magistrates’) apartments, with beautiful murals on the walls. There’s also the Hall of Tapestries, which features incredibly vast and ornate draping works of art. Many of the bronzes in these rooms were presented by Pope Sixtus IV and were part of the museum’s founding collection. The She-Wolf (the Roman insignia), lo spinario (“child with thorn”), and the original 160 AD bronze statue of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius on horseback are all worth seeing. The monument at Piazza del Campidoglio is a copy of the original, stored within the museum for conservation purposes since 1981.

Marble Statues at the Palazzo Nuovo

This is the museum’s most impressive wing. According to Michelangelo’s intentions before his death, the Palazzo Nuovo is known as the “new” palace since it was built 100 years after the Palazzo dei Conservatori. The courtyard has a magnificent reclining statue of Marforio, the River God, as well as a captivating entrance with sculptures in each niche and geometric black and white flooring. After ascending the stairwell, you’ll come across another fantastic hallway of statues, many of which are Roman replicas of Greek classics.

The Great Hall is a magnificent space with even more marble sculptures and a gilded hardwood roof from the 16th century. The light that floods in through the Great Hall’s windows creates a wonderfully magnificent ambiance in the museum’s most significant space. The Dying Gaul statue, a theatrical sculpture and one of the museum’s most powerful items, should be the last stop on your museum tour.