The Roman Stock Exchange: Temple of Hadrian at Piazza di Pietra

Colosseum Rome Tickets — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 11:53:21 +0000

Standing in Piazza di Pietra, you’re face to face with one of Rome’s most striking juxtapositions: an 18th‑century civic building wrapped around the monumental remains of a 2nd‑century temple. The complex is best known today for the eleven soaring Corinthian columns that once lined the Temple of Hadrian—also called the Hadrianeum—whose stones gave the square its very name.In a city where eras knot together, this is a place where you can literally read the layers.

The temple was dedicated in 145 A.D by Emperor Antoninus Pius to honor his adoptive father, the deified Hadrian. For centuries, scholars misidentified the ruins as the Temple (or Basilica) of Neptune; only later did research firmly re‑attribute the site to Hadrian. The temple’s surviving north flank—those famous eleven columns—became the anchor for everything that followed in this block of the Campus Martius.

In the late 1690s, during the pontificate of Pope Innocent XII, architect Carlo Fontana, working with his son Francesco, was tasked with creating a new papal customs office (the Dogana di Terra) on this spot. Rather than clear the ruins, they integrated them, completing a dignified Baroque frontage in 1700 that preserved the ancient colonnade within the new façade. The result is a seamless handshake between antiquity and early‑modern Rome that still defines the square’s character today.

A generation later, commerce took center stage. In 1831 the building became the headquarters of the Rome Stock Exchange (Borsa Valori di Roma). By 1873 the Chamber of Commerce purchased the property, commissioning architect Virginio Vespignani to adapt the interiors for its functions. The exchange’s history in Rome shows several venues, but crucially, meetings were indeed moved to the Chamber of Commerce’s building at Piazza di Pietra—inside Hadrian’s Temple—cementing the site’s role in the city’s financial story. Today, the complex serves the Rome Chamber of Commerce and hosts conferences and cultural events.

What you can see: columns, cella wall, and a living façade

Look closely at the surviving colonnade: eleven massive Corinthian shafts, each about 15 meters tall and roughly 1.44 meters in diameter, still march along the north side. Behind them, part of the cella wall survives, a powerful reminder of the temple’s original bulk and plan. Careful lighting after dusk brings out the fluting and capital details, turning the façade into a kind of open‑air museum. Isn’t it remarkable how everyday foot traffic streams past architecture that once framed imperial ritual?

The “Province” reliefs—where they went

In antiquity, the temple’s decoration included relief panels symbolizing Roman provinces, alternating with martial trophies. Many of these were recovered in the 19th century and are now displayed across several collections, especially the courtyard of the Capitoline Museums in Rome and the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

Evening projection: Luci su Adriano

As night falls, a twelve‑minute, multi‑projector light and sound installation—Luci su Adriano—animates the colonnade. The show traces the temple’s arc from construction to reuse and underscores how the site evolved from sacred precinct to hub of trade and governance. It’s brief, engaging, and easy to catch if you happen to be nearby around dusk.

The Roman Stock Exchange Photos:

Distance to the Colosseum:

The Roman Stock Excange set in the center of Rome, 1,7 km (21 min walk) from Colosseum.