Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 04/06/2026 16:39:00

Sunk several metres below the level of the modern street in central Rome, the archaeological area of Largo Argentina is a square of four Republican-era temples and the partial remains of the Curia of Pompey, the meeting hall where Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March in 44 BC. The site was uncovered during demolitions in the 1920s and has been open to limited public view ever since. The four temples, labelled by archaeologists with the letters A, B, C and D since their precise dedications remain debated, are among the oldest Roman temples whose remains are visible above ground. Temple C may date from as early as the third century BC, with the others added across the following two hundred years. The Curia of Pompey, built as part of the great theatre complex sponsored by the general in 55 BC, stood just behind the temples. After the murder of Caesar in its hall, the room was walled up as a place of ill omen, and the curious result is that some of its brick walls survive to this day, embedded in the modern fabric of the square. A walkway lifted on platforms above the ruins opened in 2023, allowing visitors for the first time to walk among the temples and inspect their column bases, altars and inscriptions from close quarters, where previously the site was only visible from the railings around the edge of the square. For decades the sunken ruins served also as one of the largest stray cat colonies in the city, with a volunteer-run sanctuary on the western edge providing food, shelter and veterinary care to several hundred cats, an unofficial Roman institution beloved by locals and visitors alike. The site sits at one of the busiest tram and bus interchanges in central Rome, only a short walk from the Pantheon and the Campo de Fiori, and the new walkway has turned a previously glimpsed-only piece of ancient history into one of the more rewarding short stops in the city core. The bronze restoration funded in part by the Italian fashion house Bvlgari paid for the new visitor walkway, lighting and explanatory panels that opened the site in 2023. Excavations occasionally continue at the edges of the square, and finds have included inscribed marble fragments and architectural pieces from the temples that line the platforms. The cat sanctuary remains in place and runs an adoption programme, encouraging visitors to take home one of the smaller residents of the ruins, and the volunteers also conduct guided tours of the site that combine archaeology with the everyday history of the colony.