The Arch of Augustus

Anyone arriving in Aosta from the east passes a great stone arch standing in the middle of a square. The Romans built it in 25 BC, the very year they founded Augusta Prætoria. It celebrated the town’s birth and Rome’s victory over the Salassi.

A victory set in stone

Before the Romans, the valley belonged to the Salassi, a people often described as Celtic, who held the routes to the Alpine passes. It took several campaigns to defeat them. In 25 BC the general Terentius Varro Murena completed the conquest, and the town was founded on land taken from the defeated.

A political message: the conquest of the valley

Dedicated to the Emperor Augustus, the arch recalls the conquest and proclaims that the valley now belongs to the Roman world, its laws and its culture. It stands at the entrance to the town, on the road from the Po plain, just before the Porta Prætoria.

What remains of the Arch of Augustus’s decoration

At 11.5 metres high, the arch is built of local stone, now badly worn. Almost all the original decoration has gone. You can still make out the Corinthian half-columns set into the piers and the Doric frieze above the arch. The slate roof protecting it was added in 1716.

Two thousand years by the roadside

The arch has lived through the town’s whole history and become one of its symbols. You can see it from afar as you arrive from the east, and it is often the starting point for a tour of Roman Aosta, from the stone bridge to the theatre.

Arch of Augustus
Piazza Arco d’Augusto
11100 Aosta (AO)

Source: Italia.it, Aosta città romana.