Mercati di Traiano Museo dei Fori Imperiali occupies the brick terraces Emperor Trajan carved into the Quirinal Hill in the early 2nd century AD, rising directly above Trajan’s Forum near Piazza Venezia. Visitors come to walk through a multi-level Roman complex where the vaults, staircases and street still stand, and to see the fora’s marble decoration reassembled up close.
Entry from Via Quattro Novembre leads into the Great Hall, a soaring cross-vaulted space lined with rooms on two floors. From there, the route climbs to the stone-paved Via Biberatica and descends toward the Great Hemicycle, which curves around the forum’s edge. The Museum of the Imperial Fora fills the Great Hall and the Central Body. Its galleries pair original sculptural fragments with newly made stone forms, giving a sense of the scale of the colonnades and statues that once lined the forums of Augustus, Trajan and Nerva. Panels, multimedia displays and interactive installations explain the architecture (Turismo Roma).
Visitor Highlights & Practical Info
Book through the official Vivaticket portal, and check current hours before you go. Temporary exhibitions add a mandatory surcharge to the ticket. Roma Pass is accepted (Mercati di Traiano). Audio and video guides cost €4 at the ticket office (source). Weekday mornings are the quietest. The upper terraces frame Trajan’s Column and the Vittoriano, and the walk to the Colosseum takes about 15 minutes along Via dei Fori Imperiali.
