Campidoglio Square is a monumentsal square located on the top of the Campidoglio hill in Rome. This is considered to be the first square to be built following Michelangelo’s criteria of a uniform design, in modern Rome, stands on Capitoline Hill (Capitolium), where a very ancient village was located and where numerous temples were dedicated to Roman gods.
Piazza del Campidoglio, until then seriously neglected, was deeply modified in 1536 when Pope Paul III commissioned Michelangelo to complete the overall arrangement of the square, on the occasion of the visit to Rome of the Spanish Emperor Charles V.
The Florentine architect built an elegant podium for Marcus Aurelius’ equestrian statue and placed it in the center of the hill in 1537, creating the centerpiece of the new urban design.
Michelangelo also designed an imposing wide step staircase, named the “Cordonata” in order to allow knights to climb easily, culminating in the solemn balustrade, surmounted by classical marble groups which were placed here in the following decades.
