Mausoleum of Augustus historical timeline

Last updated on October 5, 2026

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A tomb, a castle, a garden, a concert hall, and now a building site.

Chronology

28 BCE — Augustus builds the mausoleum on the Campus Martius, one of his first projects in Rome after his victory at Actium in 31 BCE. Structural impact: a 90-metre drum of concentric earth and brick rings faced in travertine. What you see today: that drum, stripped of everything that covered it.
23 BCE — Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Augustus's nephew, is the first to be buried there. Agrippa, Octavia Minor, Nero Claudius Drusus, and Gaius and Lucius Caesar follow. Structural impact: none. What you see today: an empty chamber — the tomb outlived everyone it was built for by two thousand years.
410 — the traditional story is that during Alaric's sack the Visigoths rifled the vaults, stole the urns and scattered the ashes without damaging the building. Structural impact: none, if it happened. What you see today: Platner and Ashby held that the story has no historical foundation and that we know nothing of its destruction — so the most famous event in its history may not have occurred.
by the late 10th century — the mausoleum has become largely buried under earth and overgrown with trees. Structural impact: burial by neglect. What you see today: the reason the surviving structure is a core rather than a surface.
12th century — the tumulus is fortified as a castle, as Hadrian's mausoleum was turned into Castel Sant'Angelo, and occupied by the Colonna family. Structural impact: military adaptation. What you see today: nothing of it — after the Commune of Rome's defeat by the Count of Tusculum in 1167 the Colonna were disgraced and banished and the fortification dismantled.
Renaissance — it passes through the ownership of several major Roman families, who use it as a garden. Structural impact: none. What you see today: an imperial tomb that spent three centuries as somebody's lawn.
early 20th century — the interior is used as a concert hall called the Augusteo. Structural impact: a roofed auditorium inside a Roman tomb. What you see today: nothing — which is the point of the next entry.
1930s — Mussolini orders the Augusteo closed and the mausoleum restored to the status of an archaeological site, as part of his reordering of Rome to connect Italian Fascism with the ancient city. Structural impact: the concert hall stripped out and the piazza around it cleared and rebuilt. What you see today: the isolated drum standing in a Fascist-era square — the setting is as much a 1930s construction as the monument is an ancient one.
March 2021 — the mausoleum reopens to the public after fourteen years closed for restoration. Structural impact: consolidation. What you see today: briefly, the inside.
6 June 2022 — it closes again to allow the renovation of Piazza Augusto Imperatore to advance. The work is by Rem Koolhaas, partly financed by the Bvlgari Group, and was expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Structural impact: the setting rebuilt around it a second time in a century. What you see today: the exterior, from the piazza, and hoardings.

Verified against Wikipedia, October 2026.

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Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Wikipedia — The Mausoleum of Augustus is a large tomb built by the Roman emperor Augustus in 28 BC on the Campus Martius in Rome, located on the Piazza Augusto Imperatore near the corner with Via di Ripetta as it runs along the Tiber, with grounds covering an area equivalent to a few city blocks between the church of San Carlo al Corso and the Museum of the Ara Pacis; after being closed for fourteen years for restoration work it was temporarily reopened to the public in March 2021, but has been temporarily closed from June 2022 due to the renovation work in Piazza Augusto Imperatore, The mausoleum was one of the first projects initiated by Augustus in the city of Rome following his victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the traditional story is that in AD 410 during the sack of Rome by Alaric the pillaging Visigoths rifled the vaults, stole the urns and scattered the ashes without damaging the structure of the building, although Platner and Ashby posited that the story of its plundering by Alaric in 410 has no historical foundation and that we know nothing of its destruction, By the end of the 10th century the mausoleum had become largely buried under earth and overgrown with trees, by the 12th century the tumulus was fortified as a castle as was the mausoleum of Hadrian which was turned into the Castel Sant'Angelo and was occupied by the Colonna family, and after the defeat of the Commune of Rome at the hands of the Count of Tusculum in 1167 the Colonna were disgraced and banished and their fortification was dismantled, after which throughout the Renaissance it passed through the ownership of several major Roman families who used it as a garden, In the early 20th century the interior of the Mausoleum was used as a concert hall called the Augusteo until Benito Mussolini ordered it closed in the 1930s and restored it to the status of an archaeological site, the restoration of the Mausoleum of Augustus to a place of prominence featuring in Mussolini's ambitious reordering of the city of Rome which strove to connect the aspirations of Italian Fascism with the ancient city, The current work on the Mausoleum of Augustus is by the architect Rem Koolhaas and partly financed by the Bvlgari Group, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, Included among those whose remains were laid inside the mausoleum before the death of Augustus were Marcus Claudius Marcellus, son of Octavia Minor, who was the first to be buried there in 23 BC, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Nero Claudius Drusus, Octavia Minor the sister of Augustus, and Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar (October 2026).

Mausoleum of Augustus historical timeline

Chronology

External resources

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