iMuseo dell'Ara PacisCampo Marzio
L'Ara si rivela
An immersive evening videomapping experience that restores the altar's original polychromy, animating its marble reliefs with light, music and multilingual narration on a roughly 45-minute route inside the monument.
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On the south frieze, three of Augustus's relatives stop being marble and start talking. Through your headset Agrippa, Antonia Minor and Drusus each explain their place in the procession, while projectors paint their togas in colours worked out from lab analysis and Pompeian wall painting.
This is an evening show, not a gallery. You walk the altar's perimeter and into its inner corridor with a small group and an operator, in four stops: the front with Aeneas and the she-wolf, the two processions, then the goddesses and the plant frieze, where a 2010 study counted more than fifty real species. Eight 4K laser projectors do the painting. It ends with the altar's burial, its Renaissance rediscovery and the 1930s excavation.
It runs Friday to Sunday, 8pm to 10pm, until 27 December, and takes about 40 minutes (the launch press said 45). Narration is in Italian, English, French or Spanish. Tickets are €15 and under-6s go free; book on Vivaticket and arrive 15 minutes early.
Editor's pick
Eight laser projectors repaint the Altar of Peace in colours worked out from lab analysis, and Agrippa, Antonia Minor and Drusus narrate their own places in the procession. Watch the acanthus frieze, where the light finds snakes, frogs and scorpions.
Look for
The talking south frieze
Look for Agrippa, Antonia Minor and Drusus among about fifty figures around a veiled Augustus; each one narrates their own role in the procession.
The hidden animals in the plant frieze
Light picks out acanthus, roses, lilies and date palms, and tucked among them snakes, salamanders, frogs, scorpions and butterflies.
Aeneas and the she-wolf
On the front, the first stop colours Aeneas at his sacrifice and the she-wolf with Romulus and Remus.
Tellus and Roma
On the back of the altar, the two goddess panels are coloured in as the route moves to the east side.
The rediscovery finale
The last section follows the altar from burial through its Renaissance rediscovery to the 1930s excavations that brought it back.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Evening Visits
- Out-Of-Town Guests
About 40 min
Skip if
You want to linger at your own pace: it's a fixed 40-minute group route with an operator.
With kids
Under-6s go free, and a family ticket is €22 for two adults with under-18s or €11 for one adult. Everyone wears a headset for the narration.
Also at Museo dell'Ara Pacis
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
7
- L'Ara si rivelaCourtesy of Museo dell'Ara Pacis
- FOOD. Il gusto nell'arteCourtesy of Chiostro del Bramante
- Fuochi sul Tevere: Roma attraverso gli occhi di Kanutas RuseckasCourtesy of Castel Sant'Angelo - Museo Nazionale
- Museo dell'Ara PacisCouncil, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Fondazione MemmoAndre P. Meyer-Vitali, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Chiostro del BramanteSailko, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Castel Sant'Angelo - Museo NazionaleJean-Pol GRANDMONT / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0