Trajan's Column

Trajan’s Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome’s Trajan Forum, erected to commemorate Emperor Trajan’s victories in the Dacian Wars and completed in 113 AD. The column stands as an important exemplar of Roman imperial art and monumental engineering.

Its most notable visual feature is a continuous spiral bas-relief that wraps the shaft and narrates the Dacian campaigns in many detailed scenes. The column originally supported a statue of Trajan; a statue of Saint Peter now occupies the summit.

The monument was designed and constructed in the early second century AD under the direction of Roman imperial builders and architects, associated historically with Apollodorus of Damascus as a prominent imperial engineer. Over the centuries it has survived as a focal point in the remains of Trajan’s Forum and has been the subject of restoration work.

Trajan’s Column sits in central Rome near the Capitoline Hill and adjacent to the ruins of Trajan’s Market; it is readily accessible on foot from the historic centre and other major ancient Roman sites.

• Spiral relief: The exterior spiral relief winds upward around the shaft and depicts the events of Emperor Trajan's Dacian campaigns in sequential scenes.
• Statue on top: A statue once of Emperor Trajan originally topped the column; the current statue is of Saint Peter placed in the Renaissance period.