Investigations, comprising excavation and geophysical survey, have been conducted on the north-eastern corner of the Palatine in an area delimited to the north by the present Via Sacra, to the east by Piazza del Colosseo and to the west by the substructure of the Imperial palace and the so-called “Baths of Elagabalus”.

The archaeological evidence documents the evolution of this area which was connected to the road linking the valley of the Colosseum to the Palatine, Velia and the Forum.

The earliest phases are represented by a proto-Republican bothros of cappellaccio stone, in a context relating to a cult that was active between the Orientalizing period and the mid-Republic, and a well, of later date, clad in peperino and filled by material from a sacred context. From the late Republic onwards the western area was occupied by a structure with an impluvium built in opus incertum which was probably a house. At the end of the Republic this was replaced by a large domus, which included street front tabernae, built in opus reticulatum with travertine pilasters. This building survived until the fire of 64 A.D.

As part of the Neronian project for the Domus Aurea the area became the site of a porticoed road which led to the Velian Atrium and continued south, in the zone nearest the valley, to a terrace supported by corridors with parallel vaults. The Flavian dynasty completed the project, making slight modifications in the eastern area which survived until the late antique period. The western part was altered by the insertion of a series of structures of Hadrianic date, subsequently replaced by the “Baths of Elagabalus”.

In the early Medieval period the road leading up to the Forum was still in use. During the Carolingian period a public building in brick, perhaps a church, was constructed along its course. It seems to have reused a small room below ground level, built in opus listatum and datable to between the 6th to 7th centuries A.D.

The later periods are distinguished by large scale robbing, both above ground and in the galleries and finally by the building of several structures relating to the delimitation of the Palatine area between the 18th and 20th centuries.