By the end of the 19th century, Rome was a city in the middle of a major transformation. In 1870, the Italian army under General Raffaele Cadorna marched into the city, taking control of the Leonine City and ending the last remnants of papal rule over Roman territory. Rome and the surrounding region of Latium were absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy. Just nine years earlier, in 1861, Rome had been declared the capital of a newly unified Italy — a title it now fully lived up to as the seat of a modern nation-state.
What you see in this collection are more than 50 photographs taken during the 1890s, all colorized using a technique called the photochrom process. A Swiss printer developed this method in the 1880s. It worked by transferring a black-and-white photographic negative onto a series of dyed limestone tablets, each one adding a different layer of color to the final image. The result was some of the earliest colorized photographs ever produced — and they remain remarkably vivid today.
The Colosseum was already nearly 2,000 years old when these photos were taken. Standing outside it in the 1890s, visitors would have seen a structure that had survived earthquakes, looting, and centuries of neglect — yet still dominated the skyline of Rome.
Not far from the Colosseum, the Arch of Titus stands at the edge of the Roman Forum. Built around 82 AD to honor Emperor Titus, the arch features detailed carvings of Roman soldiers carrying treasures taken from Jerusalem. In the 1890s, it was one of the most studied monuments in the city.
Rome’s piazzas were the social centers of daily life. The Piazza di Minerva, named after a Roman temple once dedicated to the goddess Minerva, sits in the heart of the city. At its center stands a small marble elephant carrying an ancient Egyptian obelisk — a sculpture designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 17th century.
Street life in 1890s Rome was a mix of ancient architecture and modern city activity. Horse-drawn carriages moved through narrow roads lined with vendors, pedestrians, and the occasional tourist.
The church of Trinità dei Monti crowns the famous Spanish Steps, overlooking the Piazza di Spagna below. The church dates to the early 16th century and was built under French patronage. By the 1890s, it was one of the most recognized silhouettes in all of Rome.
The Piazza del Popolo — meaning ‘People’s Square’ — sits at the northern entrance to the old city. For centuries, travelers arriving in Rome from the north entered through the gate here. Twin Baroque churches flank the southern end of the piazza, and an ancient Egyptian obelisk stands at its center.
St. Peter’s Square, designed by Bernini in the 17th century, was the spiritual heart of the Catholic world. The massive colonnades, the central obelisk, and the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica formed a scene that drew pilgrims and tourists from across Europe throughout the 1890s.
The Pyramid of Cestius is one of Rome’s most unusual ancient structures. Built around 12 BC as the tomb of Gaius Cestius, a Roman magistrate, it stands over 36 meters tall and was incorporated into the city’s walls centuries later. St. Paul’s Gate sits directly beside it.
The Palatine Hill is one of the seven hills of Rome and one of the oldest parts of the city. According to Roman tradition, it is where Romulus founded Rome in 753 BC. By the 1890s, the hill was an archaeological site covered in the ruins of imperial palaces.
The Palace of the Caesars on the Palatine Hill was the residence of Roman emperors for generations. By the late 19th century, its walls had crumbled into a vast field of ruins, but the elevated views it offered over the Forum and the city beyond remained as striking as ever.
The Trevi Fountain is the largest Baroque fountain in Rome. Completed in 1762, it marks the terminal point of one of the city’s ancient aqueducts. In the 1890s, the fountain was already a famous landmark, with water cascading over sculpted figures of Neptune and tritons into a large basin below.
The Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls is one of Rome’s four major basilicas. The original structure was built by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century. After a fire destroyed much of it in 1823, the basilica was rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1854 — just decades before these photographs were taken.
The Acqua Felice fountain was built in 1587 under Pope Sixtus V to mark the end of a newly restored ancient aqueduct. Its central figure is a large statue of Moses, flanked by smaller relief panels. The fountain supplied water to several neighborhoods on the eastern side of Rome.
From the top of the Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum spreads out below in a long valley between the city’s ancient hills. In the 1890s, archaeologists were actively digging through centuries of soil to uncover temples, basilicas, and civic buildings that had been buried for hundreds of years.
The Temple of Vesta in the Forum Romanum was one of the most sacred sites in ancient Rome. It housed the eternal flame of Rome, tended by the Vestal Virgins. The circular structure, with its ring of columns, was still partially standing in the 1890s.
The Roman Forum was once the center of Roman public life — home to elections, criminal trials, gladiator contests, and commerce. By the 1890s, much of it lay in ruin, but ongoing excavations were beginning to reveal its full scale for the first time in centuries.
Trajan’s Column was erected in 113 AD to commemorate Emperor Trajan’s victories in the Dacian Wars. It stands nearly 30 meters tall and is wrapped in a spiral relief carving that tells the story of the campaigns in extraordinary detail. In the 1890s, it stood amid the ruins of Trajan’s Forum, which had been built alongside it.
The Castel Sant’Angelo and its adjoining bridge over the Tiber River were among Rome’s most recognized landmarks. Originally built as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD, the structure was later converted into a fortress and papal refuge. The bridge leading to it, lined with angel statues designed by Bernini, made for one of the most dramatic approaches in the city.
The Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Forum dates to 495 BC, built to honor the twin gods said to have aided Rome in battle. By the 1890s, only three of its tall Corinthian columns still stood — but they remained one of the most photographed ruins in the entire city.
The interior of the Colosseum gives a clear sense of just how massive the structure is. Built between 70 and 80 AD, it held between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators at a time. The wooden floor that once covered the arena had long since disappeared by the 1890s, exposing the underground network of tunnels and chambers beneath.
Just outside the Colosseum stood the Meta Sudans, an ancient conical fountain that marked the boundary between several of Rome’s regions. It was still standing in the 1890s, though it would later be demolished in the 20th century.
The Fountain of the Naiads in Piazza della Repubblica was completed in stages throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The four bronze figures of naiads — water nymphs from Greek mythology — were added in 1901, just after these photographs were taken.
The Piazza del Campidoglio sits atop the Capitoline Hill, one of the seven hills of ancient Rome. Michelangelo designed the piazza’s layout in the 16th century. At its center stands a bronze equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The surrounding buildings house the Capitoline Museums, which in the 1890s were already among the oldest public museums in the world.
The Temple of Saturn is one of the oldest monuments in the Roman Forum, with the original structure dating to around 497 BC. The eight granite columns that remained standing in the 1890s were part of a later reconstruction. Directly beside it, the Arch of Septimius Severus, built in 203 AD, commemorated Roman victories in wars against Parthia.
The monument to Victor Emmanuel II — Italy’s first king after unification — was under construction during much of the 1890s. Work began on the massive white marble structure in 1885, and it would not be completed until 1935. Even unfinished, it reshaped the northern edge of the Capitoline Hill.
The Piazza Navona is built on the site of an ancient stadium constructed by Emperor Domitian in 86 AD. In the 1890s, the piazza was a lively public space surrounded by Baroque buildings. Its three fountains — including Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers — made it one of Rome’s most elaborate public squares.
Giuseppe Garibaldi was the military leader most responsible for the unification of Italy. His monument on the Janiculum Hill was unveiled in 1895, making it a very recent addition to Rome’s landscape when these photographs were being produced. The statue shows Garibaldi on horseback, facing toward the city he helped create.
The Villa Borghese park in northern Rome was one of the city’s great green spaces. Within it, the Temple of Diana served as a decorative garden structure — a folly built in the classical style to complement the park’s landscaped grounds and scenic lake.
Street scenes from 1890s Rome show a city that was visibly modernizing while remaining tethered to its ancient past. Residents went about their daily routines — shopping, socializing, traveling by horse-drawn carriage — against a backdrop of medieval and Renaissance buildings.
Santa Maria Maggiore is one of Rome’s four major basilicas and one of the largest churches in the city. It was founded in the 5th century and expanded many times over the following centuries. Its bell tower, the tallest in Rome, and its richly decorated interior made it a key destination for visitors throughout the 1890s.
