Totally Rome
Trajan's Market & Forum
Often called the world's first shopping mall — a multi-level Roman commercial complex nearly 2,000 years old.
What it is
Built by the emperor Trajan in the early 2nd century AD, this multi-level brick complex of shops, offices and market halls is remarkably intact — you can walk through the same corridors that once housed dozens of small businesses selling everything from spices to fish. It's frequently described as the world's first shopping mall, and the comparison holds up better than most ancient-to-modern analogies.
Trajan's Forum and Column
Adjacent to the market, Trajan's Forum was the last and largest of the imperial forums, built to commemorate his conquest of Dacia. Trajan's Column, still standing at its original height, is wrapped in a continuous spiral relief depicting the entire Dacian campaign — one of the great narrative sculptures of antiquity, best appreciated with binoculars or a zoom lens for the upper sections.
The museum
The market building now houses the Museum of the Imperial Forums, with an excellent scale model showing how the entire forum complex looked at its peak — useful context before or after walking the site.
Visiting
Located on Via dei Fori Imperiali, easily combined with the Colosseum and Roman Forum on the same day. Significantly less crowded than either of those sites despite comparable historical significance.
