History
The Musei Capitolini can be considered the richest ancient collection in the world. It goes back to 1471, when Pope Sisto IV gave the Roman poulation a group of bronze sculptures. Starting from this first donation the Capitolini museums defined their peculiarity: all the things in them come from Rome and the surrounding area and are part of the ancient history of the city. The transferring of eclectical property continued in the 500’s with Popes Paolo III and Pio IV and in the 700’s with Clemente XII and Benedetto XIV. The collection of antique sculptures was put in the Palazzo Nuovo. The collection was constantly added to by purchases, donations and findings. A constant flow of material took place after 1870 when, after public works on the city which had become the capital, brought to light relics of great importance. To house these new findings new rooms were created in the Palazzo dei Conservatori. In 1957, in the Galleria di Congiunzione built between 1939 and 1941 to join the palazzi capitolini, the Galleria Lapidaria was opened which contained antique Roman and Greek inscriptions from the Antiquarium del Celio and the same Musei Capitolini. After long work of restorations the museum has new exhibition areas, due to the reopening of closed areas, regaining of space and reorganising of some old rooms.

The location
The Capitolini Museums are situated in two buildings placed one infront of the other on either side of the piazza del Campidoglio: the Palazzo dei Conservatori, to the right and the Palazzo Nuovo, to the left. The Palazzo dei Conservatori, destined to be the civil magistration, was built in 1568 by Giacomo della Porta. The Palazzo Nuovo finished almost a century later, the main point of the square: it was projected by Girolamo Rainaldi a copy of Palazzo dei Conservatori and finished in1655. As well as the Palazzo Senatorio, built in the XII century on the remains of the ancient Tabularium and in the background, they make up the architectural complex of the piazza of Campidoglio, from the characteristic trapezoid form, projected by Michelangelo.

The Capitolino Museum
Situated in the Palazzo Nuovo, it was created exclusively for the exhibiting of ancient sculptures. Since 1990 the statue of Marco Aurelio on horseback, has been in the museum, a bronze original dating to approx. 175 d.C., brought to Campidoglio in 1538 on request of Paolo III. It was in the centre of the square but then removed in 1981 for restoration work and then put inside to protect it from weather damage. At the centre of an octagonal room there’s the Venere Capitolina, Roman copy of a Hellenistic original derived from an Afrodite Cnidia di Prassitele. One of the most famous pieces of the museum is the Galata Morente, replica of a bronze statue donated to the temple of Atena, in Pergamo, from Attalo I to celebrate the victory over the Galls. In the same room there’s a Wounded Amazon, from an original by Fidia from the V century a.C. A vast collection of portraits, mainly from Cardinal Albani’s collection, and kept in the Emperor’s room: there are busts which represent the Roman Emperors from Augusto to Costantino and some Empresses. The philosopher’s room has a series of portraits of famous men from the Greek world (Omero, Socrate, Demostene, Epicuro).