Trophy of Augustus

Description

Overlooking the bay of Monaco, the Auguste's Trophy in La Turbie is one of the few buildings of this type still preserved today. Located on the highest point of Via Julia Augusta, the panorama extends to Italy where the surrounding mountains have experienced a very ancient human occupation.

Indeed, long before the arrival of the Romans, the region was punctuated by Ligurian fortresses called "Castellaras". It was not before the pacification of the Alps by Augustus around 14 BCE and the establishment of the Pax Romana that the attacks of the Alpine tribes ceased. It is this peace that the Trophy celebrates.

Its construction and location are the ultimate markers of the Italian territory. The place symbolizes a kind of limit between Italy and Gaul. The inscription on one of the sides of the Trophy also lists 45 peoples of the Alpine Arc now subject and also recalls the armed struggles and diplomatic alliances that led Augustus to erect this monument.

Originally made up of a 35 meters long base and a 12 meters high platform topped by a rotunda with 24 columns with the emperor’s statue, the Via Julia Augusta passed at the time just in front of the monument that dominated the Mediterranean and the Portus Herculis Monoikos, the current port of Monaco.