Temple of Venus And Rome Reopens After 26-Year Renovation (PHOTOS)

After 26 years of restoration, the Italian government has reopened the Temple of Venus and Rome in the Roman Forum to the public, reports the New York Times.

Commissioned by Emperor Hadrian and finished by Antoninus Pius, the temple, which is considered one of the most majestic in Rome, is now mostly columns and arches. According to the Telegraph, the site was used as a carpark until the 1980's. The reopening comes a week after the "House of Gladiators" in Pompeii collapsed. The New York Times reported that after the collapse, there were calls for Culture Minister Sandro Bondi to resign.

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It's no Colosseum Majestic!

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Comments

[sbrannon]

05:53 PM on 11/14/2010

Temple of Venus in Rome? Do they mean?

[sempronia]

04:13 PM on 11/14/2010

Aww... now my photos from when we got the private tour are less impressive... Oh well. Hurray for the double temple!

[colah]

09:13 PM on 11/12/2010

26 years of renovation & they couldnt get the mold off the roof? All & all pretty disappointing unless it was a pile of rocks 26 years ago.

[sempronia]

04:09 PM on 11/14/2010

Rome is actually fairly humid -- the fact that that is moss rather than full-on grass is actually pretty good...

[captpicard12]

03:10 PM on 11/12/2010

Wow... even in it's current state, it's still so amazing to look at and know that there were Romans looking at the exact same thing a couple thousand years ago. Fantastic. I'm glad it's open.

[wm1066]

11:45 AM on 11/12/2010

As a photographer and an artist I have to say...really bad photographic images! More and more art departments aren't hiring qualified photographers, they think with the digital age anybody can take pictures. This is a perfect example, the colums on #4 don't make sense, and whats with the clouds and sky? The shadow detail is blocking up, and #1 looks like they took it with a fish eye lense.

[TStringfellow]

03:23 PM on 11/12/2010

I agree that the photos are pretty bad (though as a person who owns a fisheye, #1 definitely isn't shot with one).

[wm1066]

03:31 PM on 11/12/2010

Okay, okay, maybe its a 50 mm, I just thought it might make more sense to non photographers to say fish eye instead of mm's. But you'll agree they used the wrong lense to get the shot.

[sempronia]

04:08 PM on 11/14/2010

The problem is that the best angle for those pictures is the Colosseum, with a telephoto lens, which was where you've been able to go for the last 26 years anyway!

[rougebaisers]

07:30 AM on 11/12/2010

Love everything Roman.

[Bhokara]

03:50 AM on 11/13/2010

Well, the crucifictions weren't so hot.

[regulargal]

10:12 PM on 11/11/2010

"the site was used as a carpark until the 1980's."

What were they thinking!?!

[duncansdad]

02:38 PM on 11/12/2010

The Romans would park on your face if they could.

[Bhokara]

03:50 AM on 11/13/2010

You ever tried to park in Rome?