The Campidoglio was the religious centre of Rome and her Empire. It was chosen as the setting for city’s most important temples, including the Temple of Jupiter. The hill originally had two peaks, the arx and the capitolium which opened onto the famous Tarpeian Rock from where traitors were thrown off. The Emperor Trajan drastically changed its appearance by eliminating one of the peaks in order to increase the area available for his forum whose containing wall in brick can still be seen today near the entrance to the Museum of the Risorgimento.
The present-day Piazza del Campidoglio was designed by Michelangelo, commissioned by Pope Paul III to rescue the whole area from a state of abandonment in celebration of Emperor Charles V’s visit to Rome. Michelangelo built a base for the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius positioned in the square in 1537 (the original is now in the Capitoline Museums) and designed the geometric pattern of the flooring (the present paving dates to the early 1900s) intending to create an optical extension. He then focussed on the entry staircase, known as the cordonata and Palazzo Senatorio, whose imposing façade is dominated by a double staircase. He renovated Palazzo dei Conservatori and built Palazzo Nuovo (completed by Giacomo della Porta), today both house the rooms of the Capitoline Museum.
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