Since late March, Romans and visitors can enjoy an immersive multimedia experience exploring one of the city’s most iconic monuments.

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The gallery lights dim. The soft hum of projectors fills the vaulted ceiling. Suddenly, beams of color sweep across ancient marble, bringing the bas-reliefs to life as the lights flicker and glow. For a brief moment, time seems suspended, modern Rome falls silent, and its ancient past, now brought to life for the modern age. 

Experiencing Ancient Rome in meticulous detail is now possible. Beginning 27 March, the Ara Pacis Museum on the Lungotevere offers visitors the chance to see the city’s monuments as the Romans once did, radiant, vibrant, and alive with history.

L’Ara Si Rivela (The Ara Reveals Itself) is a multimedia project designed to bring the ancient world to life. Using cutting-edge projectors, dynamic lighting, and immersive soundscapes, the initiative transports visitors into the heart of one of Rome’s most celebrated monuments: the Ara Pacis.

INSPIRATION

Commissioned in 9 BC to celebrate the Pax Romana, it was intended to honour Augustus for his successes in conquering the North and his military stabilisation efforts. As Christianity became Rome’s focus, the monument’s significance faded, and its magnificence would soon be swallowed by the Earth’s soil. For centuries, she lay forgotten, until her rediscovery in the Renaissance offered an opportunity to reconnect with the artistry and grandeur of ancient Rome. 

The multimedia narrative is rich with sweeping 4K laser projectors that illuminate the Pacis’ four facades, reviving the glory of Pax Romana. The western front tells of Romulus and Remus and of Aeneas’s sacrifice. The side processions depict high priests and imperial family members in bas-relief, while the eastern facade is debated to be either a showcase of Mother Earth (Tellus) or of Venus and the goddess Roma. 

Since the monument’s original colors remain a mystery, historians have used laboratory analysis and collaborative research to hypothesize how it once appeared. Their findings inspired the projection series—designed to emulate the Ara Pacis’s original polychromy and reveal details lost to time.

Visitors follow designated paths, guided to each facade. Audio guides narrate the Ara Pacis’s story — its rise, fall, and renewal — through the voices of collectors, restorers, and archaeologists. As soft music swells and projections ripple across the marble, the altar’s history unfolds in light and shadow. Many pause in awe, immersed in a spectacle where history becomes tangible — revealing details hidden for centuries.

Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, notes that the “project enhances the city’s cultural heritage and strengthens the role of civic museums as places capable of bringing history closer to an ever-growing audience.”

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L’Ara Si Rivela welcomes ticketed visitors every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 8 to 11 pm, with times changing in the summer months. Tours, which are guided, can accompany 25 guests and will last a duration of 45 minutes.

This immersive experience invites guests to rediscover the Ara Pacis’s original beauty through modern technology, where splendor and innovation meet beneath the Roman sky. 

Tickets can be pre-purchased online at or, if available, on-site at Tourist Infopoints, at all civic museum ticket offices, and at the bookshops/ticket offices of the Mausoleum of Augustus, Clivus Acilio, and Casina Vignola Boccapaduli.

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