Ara Pacis - the altar in Rome, dedicated to the goddess of peace. The monument was made by order of the Roman Senate 13 BC in honor of the return of Augustus from a three-year tour of Roman Spain and Gaul. Consecrated in 9 BC during the celebration of peace brought by Augustus of the Roman Empire as a result of numerous military victories.

Ara Pacis is made up of a small altar in the center and the four surrounding walls. Along the walls are two-level curbs, which shows an image of peace and prosperity as a result of the superiority of Rome. In addition, the altar had to remind the Romans on the achievements of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Altar of Peace was within an elegant marble railings, which were scenes of traditional Roman virtues and the Emperor himself and his wife at the time of sacrifice. It also shows the men, women and children, appealing to the gods - it is interesting that the image of children at the time was a novelty, if not - an unprecedented phenomenon. And today, the Ara Pacis considered a masterpiece of the most famous sculptures of the Augustan age. Two-thirds of the top scenes on the monument is occupied with a clergy, and the remaining space are figures from Roman mythology - Romulus, Remus, King Numa, Aeneas, and others. Probably in August considered himself a descendant of Aeneas, so the choice of pieces was determined. At the bottom of the monument depict scenes of nature.

Initially, the Ara Pacis was located on the northern outskirts of Rome - he stood on the northeast corner of the Champs de Mars, the territory, which in August has turned into a kind of open-air museum .  In the 2nd century AD . e .  the altar was surrounded by a protective wall, and he gradually found himself immersed in the layer of the earth .  The first fragments of the monument were discovered in 1568 by building the Palazzo Chigi - they were placed in storage at the Villa Medici, the Vatican, as well as the Uffizi Gallery and the Louvre .  In 1859, one more fragments were found in the same area under the building of the Theatre Olympia, which was part of the Palazzo Peretti .  Half a century later, after it discovered fragments have been identified as part of the Altar of Peace, the Ministry of National Education has been asked to carry out further excavations .  Permission was granted, but when half the monument had already been excavated, and 53 fragments studied carefully excavated had to stop .  Only in 1937, the 2000-year anniversary of the birth of Augustus, it was decided to resume work with the latest technologies .  And in 1938 on the orders of Benito Mussolini to protect the Ara Pacis special building was constructed next to the Mausoleum of August - it was an attempt to create a theme park Duce ancient Rome to the glory of Fascist Italy . 

Today, the site of the building, which was built on the orders of Mussolini, is a new building, designed by the American architect Richard Meier. It was opened in 2006. Rome Municipality plans to create a pedestrian zone along the bank of the Tiber River, leading to the monument.