The Capitoline museums are a group of archaeological museums in Rome, located in Piazza del Campidoglio on top of the Capitoline hill. The core group of palaces are the Palazzo dei Conservatory and Palazzo Nuovo, facing to the side of the trapezoidal Piazza designed by Michelangelo in 1563.

History museums began in 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV bequeathed a collection of antique bronze statues to the people of Rome. Since then, the Museum collections grew and expanded to a huge number of Roman artifacts, works of medieval art and the Renaissance art, a collection of jewelry, coins, etc.

In the center of the square stands the equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius is a copy and the original is kept in the Capitoline Museum. I must say that many ancient Roman statues were destroyed in the Middle ages by order of the Christian Church, but this one survived in that era mistakenly believed that this statue of the Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The Capitoline museums are three buildings connected by an underground gallery beneath the square is the Palazzo Senatorio the 12th century, the Palazzo dei Conservatory in the mid-16th century and the Palazzo Nuovo of the 17th century. In addition, at the beginning of the 20th century the Museum complex also included a small Palazzo Caffarelli-Clementino, located next to the Palazzo dei Conservatory.

Two floors of the Palazzo Nuovo is the statues, sarcophagi, busts, mosaics, and other artifacts of ancient Rome. So, here you can see the marble statue "the Dying Gaul", a masterpiece of ancient art, "Cupid and psyche", is a colossal statue of the Ocean (one of the Titans) and the statue of Capitoline Venus the 4th century BC

In the Palazzo dei Conservatory exhibited predominantly Roman sculpture, but there are also Greek and Egyptian. On the second floor houses the famous bronze she-wolf, vicoria Romulus and Remus and became the symbol of Rome and ancient tapestries, frescoes, stucco, etc. On the third floor is an art gallery.

Collection of coins, medals, precious stones and jewellery is kept in a nearby Palazzo Caffarelli-Clementino.

Under the Palazzo dei Conservatory and the area is a Gallery Congiunzione connecting all three buildings - it was built in the 1930-ies. Today you can see ruins of ancient Roman dwellings, and also a collection of inscriptions on hard material.