Following major redevelopment work begun in 2020 based on a design by the Urbs et Civitas group, winner of the 2006 international competition, the new Piazza Augusto Imperatore is now open to the public. The new design envisaged an organic space with two staircases connecting the church of San Carlo al Corso to the Ara Pacis and the Tiber embankment, integrating the heritage of ancient, modern and contemporary Rome into a single architectural and urban design.
The square reconnects the city with the area of the large circular mausoleum built to house the ashes of Emperor Augustus and members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which over the centuries has been used as a fort, garden, amphitheater and concert hall. In the square designed by Vittorio Morpurgo in the 1930s, the Mausoleum of Augustus was isolated and decontextualized. In the new project, the current street level has been connected to the original level of the mausoleum, highlighted and embellished by part of the original travertine paving. With the opening of the square to the public, the final phase of the restoration of the mausoleum has also begun. The work, which was started in 2019 by the Capitoline Superintendency of Cultural Heritage with the contribution of the TIM Foundation, is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
The time needed to redevelop the area was determined by important archaeological finds (late antique structures, mosaic fragments, a boundary stone and a marble head of a female deity), which will be placed in the mausoleum, whose interior design and display areas are entrusted to Rem Koolhaas thanks to the patronage of the Bvlgari Group. To reinforce the square’s role as a meeting place and gathering point, a large space with a café, ticket office and bookshop has also been added at the southern end of the area.
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