Curia Julia

The Curia Iulia is the Roman Senate House on the Forum Romanum, commissioned by Julius Caesar in 44 BCE and completed under Emperor Augustus in 29 BCE. It stands on the foundations of two earlier curiae - the Curia Cornelia and originally the legendary Curia Hostilia - and remained in use until the 7th century, when Pope Honorius I converted it into the church of Sant'Adriano. That conversion is what preserved the ancient masonry into the 20th century: in 1937 archaeologists stripped away the Baroque additions and revealed the Roman hall. The building is 27 metres long, 18 metres wide and over 21 metres tall, with surviving sections of original opus sectile flooring in coloured marble. Today the doors stand open, and visitors enter the hall where Cicero and Augustus once spoke - empty, echoing, austerely impressive.