The Original Caesar's Palace
May. 26th, 2025 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerItaly Travelog #8
Palatine Hill, Rome - Sunday, 25 May 2025, 1:30pm
Have you seen Caesar's Palace? No, not the casino in Las Vegas; I mean the real Caesar's Palace. The original, in Rome.
Well, I was just there, atop the Palatine Hill in Rome, and I can barely say I saw it, either. That's because Caesar's Palace, called Domus Augustus (the Home of Augustus), which was built almost 2,000 years ago is today in ruins. And even the ruins haven't always been well cared for.
The palace fell into disuse after the fall of the Roman Empire then crumbled. Many of its stones were stolen—or "repurposed" to build or decorate buildings elsewhere, either in Rome or overseas. Plus there was natural deterioration and an earthquake. Together these left the palace not even a shell of its former self; more of an outline of where something amazing once stood. And it got covered over in dirt.
The ruins were rediscovered in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by wealthy landowners. They did some of the excavation and began "repurposing" all over again. They replaced several of the original limestone and marble walls with 17th century bricks, and turned the area into an open-air garden.
Palatine Hill, Rome - Sunday, 25 May 2025, 1:30pm
Have you seen Caesar's Palace? No, not the casino in Las Vegas; I mean the real Caesar's Palace. The original, in Rome.
Well, I was just there, atop the Palatine Hill in Rome, and I can barely say I saw it, either. That's because Caesar's Palace, called Domus Augustus (the Home of Augustus), which was built almost 2,000 years ago is today in ruins. And even the ruins haven't always been well cared for.
The palace fell into disuse after the fall of the Roman Empire then crumbled. Many of its stones were stolen—or "repurposed" to build or decorate buildings elsewhere, either in Rome or overseas. Plus there was natural deterioration and an earthquake. Together these left the palace not even a shell of its former self; more of an outline of where something amazing once stood. And it got covered over in dirt.
The ruins were rediscovered in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by wealthy landowners. They did some of the excavation and began "repurposing" all over again. They replaced several of the original limestone and marble walls with 17th century bricks, and turned the area into an open-air garden.
