Discover Trajan's Market

Trajan's Market is the tiered brick complex built into the slope of the Quirinal beside the Forum of Trajan, probably between 100 and 110 AD, by Apollodorus of Damascus — the architect Trajan trusted with the Forum itself.

It is routinely called the world's first shopping mall, and that is a modern label rather than a finding. What the complex actually held was a mix of administration and commerce, arranged over several levels around a great hemicycle that follows the curve of the Forum below it.

It survives this well because it was never abandoned. The Middle Ages kept using it, adding floor levels that are still visible and building the Torre delle Milizie into it in 1300. A sixteenth-century convent on the site was bought by the state in 1885 and became the Goffredo Mameli barracks, which was demolished early in the twentieth century to bring the Roman fabric back.

Since 2007 it has housed the Museum of the Imperial Fora, which gathers material from all of the imperial forums — the one place the whole sequence is explained together.

Trajan's Market is the tiered brick complex built into the slope of the Quirinal beside the Forum of Trajan, probably between 100 and 110 AD, by Apollodorus of Damascus — the architect Trajan trusted with the Forum itself.

It is routinely called the world's first shopping mall, and that is a modern label rather than a finding. What the complex actually held was a mix of administration and commerce, arranged over several levels around a great hemicycle that follows the curve of the Forum below it.

It survives this well because it was never abandoned. The Middle Ages kept using it, adding floor levels that are still visible and building the Torre delle Milizie into it in 1300. A sixteenth-century convent on the site was bought by the state in 1885 and became the Goffredo Mameli barracks, which was demolished early in the twentieth century to bring the Roman fabric back.

Since 2007 it has housed the Museum of the Imperial Fora, which gathers material from all of the imperial forums — the one place the whole sequence is explained together.

The hemicycle is the idea. The complex's great curved facade follows the line of the Forum of Trajan below it, so the building is shaped by the space it faces rather than by its own plan. Reading it as a response to the Forum is what makes the geometry legible.

It is built into a cut hillside, not onto flat ground. The Quirinal slope was carved back and terraced, and the structure both retains the hill and occupies it. That is why the visit is vertical: the levels are the hillside.

Brick-faced concrete, and that is the point. This is Roman utilitarian construction at its most confident — barrel vaults, groin vaults, corridors and small rooms, built to be used rather than admired. There is almost no marble facing left, which paradoxically makes the engineering easier to read than at a temple.

The medieval floors are part of the architecture now. Levels inserted in the Middle Ages remain in place, so several of the spaces you walk through are Roman rooms at a height the Romans did not use.

It was built by removing a hill. The Quirinal slope was cut back to make room for the Forum of Trajan, and this complex is what holds the cut face up. Construction and retention are the same structure — which is the unusual thing about it, and the reason it is terraced rather than stacked.

Brick-faced concrete, vaulted throughout, raised probably between 100 and 110 AD under Apollodorus of Damascus. The material is ordinary and the execution is not: the vaulting carries several occupied levels on a slope, in a form robust enough to survive nineteen centuries of reuse.

Then it kept being built on. Medieval builders inserted floor levels, still visible, and raised the Torre delle Milizie in 1300 as a defensive element. A sixteenth-century convent went up on the area. Each layer loaded and altered the Roman fabric rather than replacing it.

The last construction campaign was a demolition. The convent, by then the Goffredo Mameli barracks after the state bought it in 1885, was pulled down early in the twentieth century specifically to restore the markets. What you walk through was shaped as much by that clearance as by Apollodorus.

Was it really the world's first shopping mall? That is a modern label rather than a finding. The complex held a mix of administration and commerce; calling it a mall is a useful shorthand that overstates what the evidence supports.

Who built it and when? Apollodorus of Damascus, probably between 100 and 110 AD — the architect who followed Trajan on campaign and planned his Forum.

Why is it so well preserved? Because it was never abandoned. The Middle Ages added floors and built the Torre delle Milizie into it in 1300, so the structure was maintained and defended rather than quarried for its stone.

What is the tower? The Torre delle Milizie, the "militia tower", built in 1300 as part of the medieval fortification of the complex.

What does it cost? €19.50 for non-resident adults and €14.00 concessions at the time of checking, same-day at the ticket office; pre-sale adds €1. The civic museums price admission together with the exhibition running, so confirm the current tariff. Free for Rome residents and MIC cardholders.

Do I need to book? No. General admission is not timed. Groups of 11 to 25 plus a guide do need a free reservation on 060608.

What is the Museum of the Imperial Fora? The museum inside the complex, opened in 2007, holding material from all of ancient Rome's forums — the only place the whole sequence is presented together.

Can I see it without paying? The famous part, yes. The hemicycle and the tower read completely from the street. The ticket buys the interior, the terraces and the museum.