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The Trajan’s Column

The Trajan’s Column: a must-visit destination when in Rome.

A very few things are going to leave tourists as speechless as when they encounter the majesty and imposing allure of Trajan’s Column.

This column is perhaps one of the most influential roman monuments in the history of art and design. Being the greatest examples of “Roman Doric”, this 29.78m giant expands itself for roughly 5.29m, completely made in white Carrara marble

The Trajan’s Column, Rome
The Trajan’s Column

The Trajan’s column is being accessible to tourists prior booking which, nevertheless, it is not always granted.

Its 185 steps will elevate the visitor from the pavement outside the pedestal up to the balcony, where it is possible to admire Rome from the most unique prospective.

The blocks are stuck and ordered with numbers and they slightly diverge from one another in dimensions and inscriptions. The structure sits on a taurus, which is an enormous pedestal where the helocoidal shapes takes place. This column was being built under order of emperor Traianus in order to commemorate its victory during the Dacia Wars.

 

Who designed it?

 

Apollodorus from Damascus
Apollodorus from Damascus

 

It was designed and executed under the supervision of Apollodorus from Damascus and it took over 10 years to be completed. Besides its dimensions, there is one component making this artifact stand out from any other thing ever built by mankind: over 30 meters of inscriptions where no 2 scenes are alike.

 

What was Trajan’s Column for?

As in the below image, the column hosts a repertoire still used in modern iconography, from beat to floral ornament, animal figures and imperial weaponry represented with a such mesmerizing detailing to leave no one unimpressed.

The iconographic scheme of the column illustrates Trajan’s wars in Dacia
The iconographic scheme of the column illustrates Trajan’s wars in Dacia

During middle aged, the huge Trajan s’ statue was replaced by Saint Peter apostole.

The font we nowadays used for Mac and Windows was taken entirely from the inscription at the base of the pedestal and set to become one of the most used fonts in graphic design. This creation is one of the most replicated monuments in the world, with quite similar shaped columns in Vienna, Oregon and Kazakistan.

The inscriptions contain more than 5000 different figures and it is estimated that it took at least 300 people to work for each single block forming the body of the column.

Many ancient historians report that for years no marble from Carrara was made available in every area of the empire, as well as no other construction was allowed to use marble in order to complete the column.

View of the marble quarries in Carrara
View of the marble quarries in Carrara

This monument had historical and anthropological value since during that age, anyone was coming here to point randomly one of the endless marble figures in order to predict the outcome of a war.

To attend this place was quite normal during early Renaissence as schoolars and clergy were allowed to come inside and study the documents and latin inscriptions to master their knowledge.

During the 1900, however, due to some structural technicalities, the access was limited and still is today in order to preserve the internal architecture.

Imposing, eternal and astonishing, a must-visit destination when in Rome 👇

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