Replica of The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius - Rome, Italy
N 41° 53.604 E 012° 28.976
33T E 291187 N 4641004
The statue now standing in the open air of the Piazza del Campidoglio is a replica made in 1981 when the original was taken down for restoration.
Waymark Code: WMPPKW
Location: Lazio, Italy
Date Posted: 10/02/2015
Views: 14
The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius is an ancient Roman statue in the Campidoglio, Rome, Italy. It is made of bronze and stands 4.24 m tall.
The statue was erected ca. AD 175. Its original location is debated: the Roman Forum and Piazza Colonna (where the Column of Marcus Aurelius stands) have been proposed.
Although there were many equestrian imperial statues, they rarely survived because it was the common practice to melt down bronze statues for reuse as material for coins or new sculptures in the late empire. Statues were also destroyed because medieval Christians thought that they were pagan idols. The statue of Marcus Aurelius was not melted down because in the Middle Ages it was incorrectly thought to portray the first Christian Emperor, Constantine. Indeed, it is the only fully surviving bronze statue of a pre-Christian Roman emperor.
In the 8th century it stood in the Lateran Palace in Rome, from where it was relocated in 1538 to the Piazza del Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill) during Michelangelo's redesign of the Hill. Though he disagreed with its central positioning, he designed a special pedestal for it.
Pollution, due mainly to the flood of traffic that daily clogs the city center, and exposure to the elements had caused most of the damage to the statue beloved by generations of Romans.
An urban guerrilla bomb exploded nearby in 1979, and experts said that replacing the emperor in the Capitol square, designed by Michelangelo in the 16th Century, would put him at risk from vandalism as well as pollution.
The restorers favored replacing the statue with a copy, to be made with computer technology to ensure an exact likeness, and then installing the newly restored original safely inside one of the grandiose civic buildings nearby.
Most Relevant Historical Period: Roman Empire > 27 B.C.
Admission Fee: 0
Web Site: [Web Link]
Condition: Completely intact or reconstructed
Opening days/times: Not listed
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