Trajan's Market Guide: Tickets, Prices & What to See

Trajan's Market (Mercati di Traiano) is a multi-level complex of ancient Roman halls and shop-fronts built into the flank of the Quirinal Hill, adjoining Trajan's Forum, and often described as the world's oldest surviving shopping-mall-like structure. Today it houses the Museum of the Imperial Forums.

Standard admission is EUR 15.00 (EUR 9.50 reduced for EU citizens aged 18-25). A separate, higher combined ticket applies only during the current temporary exhibition (20 February-19 July 2026) — the standard price applies the rest of the year.

The complex was designed by Apollodorus of Damascus, Trajan's own architect, as part of the wider Trajan's Forum building program. Visitors walk through surviving tabernae (shop units) across several levels, along with the Great Hall (Aula Traiana) and a terrace overlooking Trajan's Column and Forum below.

Because it sits directly on Via dei Fori Imperiali, it's easily combined with a visit to the Roman Forum, Colosseum, or Capitoline Museums on the same day.

Built around 100-110 AD as part of Emperor Trajan's forum complex, the structure combined administrative offices, storage, and commercial space across several terraced levels cut into the Quirinal Hill — a solution to the limited flat ground available after the adjoining Forum and Column were built.

The site was substantially altered over the following centuries, serving at various points as a fortress and convent, before 20th-century excavation and restoration work uncovered and stabilized the ancient structure now open to visitors, with the Museum of the Imperial Forums added within it in 2007.