The Seven Halls

The Oppian Hill (Latin, Oppius Mons; Italian: Colle Oppio) is the southern spur of the Esquiline Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome, Italy. It is separated from the Cispius on the north by the valley of the Suburra, and from the Caelian Hill on the south by the valley of the Colosseum. The Oppius and the Cispius together form the Esquiline plateau just inside the line of the Servian Wall. In the divisions of the Septimontium (seven hills) Fagutal appears as an independent locality, which implies that originally "Oppius" was strictly applied to this spur except the western end. The northern tip of this western end was also called Carinae, which extended between the Velian Hill and the Clivus Pullius, looked out to the southwest (across the swamps of the Palus Ceroliae towards the Aventine), incorporated the Fagutal and was one of ancient Rome's most exclusive neighborhoods. At least for religious purposes the name Oppius continued in use to the end of the republic; no later instance has been found. According to Varro its name derives from Oppius, a citizen of Tusculum who came to the Romans' assistance during Tullus Hostilius's siege of Veii. However, the word's true etymology is obscure. It may possibly be that of a clan that lived in this area, a gens name of plebeian status. Detlefsen's conjecture that Oppius is derived from Oppidus was revived by Pinza, who regards the name as comparatively late. The Oppian Hill Park (Italian: Parco del Colle Oppio) covers about eleven hectares. It was developed in 1871, as part of the urban reorganization that followed the establishment of Rome as the capital of Italy. From that time the area was used as a public garden. But it was during the fascist era when work was carried out to give the park its present appearance. This was planned in 1928 under the guidance of the architect Raffaele De Vico, and completed in 1936. Work included the fountains, statues and marble sculptures that decorate the park today. A central avenue leads down the hill to the Colosseum, providing an attractive view. The Oppian Hill Park is considered to be an archaeological park. Much of the Domus Aurea (Golden House of Nero) lies under it, and it also contains the ruins of the Baths of Trajan and the earlier Baths of Titus.

The Church of Saint Lucy in Selci (Italian: Santa Lucia in Selci, also known as Santa Lucia in Silice or Santa Lucia in Orfea (in Orphea, in Orthea)) is an ancient Roman Catholic church, located in Rome, dedicated to Saint Lucy, a 4th-century virgin and martyr.

The Baths of Trajan (Italian: Terme di Traiano) were a massive thermae, a bathing and leisure complex, built in ancient Rome starting from 104 AD and dedicated during the kalendae of July in 109. Commissioned by Emperor Trajan, the complex of baths occupied space on the southern side of the Oppian Hill on the outskirts of what was then the main developed area of the city, although still inside the boundary of the Servian Wall. The architect of the complex is said to be Apollodorus of Damascus. The baths were being utilized mainly as a recreational and social center by Roman citizens, both men and women, as late as the early 5th century. The complex seems to have been deserted soon afterwards as a cemetery dated to the 5th century (which remained in use until the 7th century) has been found in front of the northeastern exedra. The baths were thus no longer in use at the time of the siege of Rome by the Ostrogoths in 537; with the destruction of the Roman aqueducts, all thermae were abandoned, as was the whole of the now-waterless Mons Oppius. Early Christian writers misnamed the remains the "Baths of Domitian".

Torre dei Capocci (Engl.: "The Tower of the Capocci") is a tower at San Martino ai Monti square in Rome, Italy.Torre dei Capocci, along with Torre dei Graziani, constitutes a kind of monumental entrance to top of the hill Esquilino. Built by the family of Arcioni in the 12th century, it afterwards went to the Capocci, a noble family from Viterbo. These erected around the tower a number of houses, which no longer exist, but which made the building a sort of citadel. The tower is 36 m (118 ft) high with seven floors, a square base, and windows framed in travertine. The terrace, bordered by a brick parapet, is edged by crenellated battlements on each side, and emerges at the output hopper of the staircase.

San Martino ai Monti, officially known as Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti ("Saints Sylvester & Martin in the Mountains"), is a minor basilica in Rome, Italy, in the Rione Monti neighbourhood. It is located near the edge of the Parco del Colle Oppio, near the corner of Via Equizia and Viale del Monte Oppio, about five to six blocks south of Santa Maria Maggiore. The current Cardinal Priest with title to the basilica is Kazimierz Nycz, the Archbishop of Warsaw. Among the previous titulars are Alfonso de la Cueva, Joseph Mary Tomasi, C.R., Pope Pius XI, Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, O.S.B., and Gianbattista Montini, later Pope Paul VI.

The Catacombs of Rome (Italian: Catacombe di Roma) are ancient catacombs, underground burial places in and around Rome, of which there are at least forty, some rediscovered only in recent decades. Though most famous for Christian burials, either in separate catacombs or mixed together, Jews and also adherents of a variety of pagan Roman religions were buried in catacombs, beginning in the 2nd century AD, occasioned by the ancient Roman ban on burials within a city, and also as a response to overcrowding and shortage of land. The most extensive and perhaps the best known is the Christian Catacomb of Callixtus located near the Park of the Caffarella, but there are other sites, both Christian and not, scattered around the city, some of which are now engulfed by modern urban sprawl. The Christian catacombs are extremely important for the history of Early Christian art, as they contain the great majority of examples from before about 400 AD, in fresco and sculpture, as well as gold glass medallions (these, like most bodies, have been removed). The Jewish catacombs are similarly important for the study of Jewish culture at this early period.

The Esquiline Hill (; Latin: Collis Esquilinus; Italian: Esquilino [eskwiˈliːno]) is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. Its southernmost cusp is the Oppius (Oppian Hill).

The Domus Aurea (Latin, "Golden House") was a vast landscaped complex built by the Emperor Nero largely on the Oppian Hill in the heart of ancient Rome after the great fire in 64 AD had destroyed a large part of the city.It replaced and extended his Domus Transitoria that he had built as his first palace complex on the site.

The Baths of Titus or Thermae Titi were public baths (Thermae) built in 81 AD at Rome, by Roman emperor Titus. The baths sat at the base of the Esquiline Hill, an area of parkland and luxury estates which had been taken over by Nero (AD 54–68) for his Golden House or Domus Aurea. Titus' baths were built in haste, possibly by converting an existing or partly built bathing complex belonging to the reviled Domus Aurea. They were not particularly extensive, and the much larger Baths of Trajan were built immediately adjacent to them at the start of the next century.

Santi Gioacchino ed Anna ai Monti (Saints Joachim and Anne on the hills) is a church on the Via Monte Polacco in Rome. Pope Clement XIII demolished a thirty-seven-year-old Minim monastery on this site (founded in 1723 by Fr. Francesco Narici) in 1760 to make way for a new monastery and the present church. The church, on a Greek cross plan, barrel-vaulted and with a central dome, was consecrated in 1781 by Pope Pius VI. Its 18th-century façade has four pilasters with Corinthian capitals and is crowned by an undecorated tympanon. The main decorations are stucco cherubs, including a tympanum above the high altar with cherubs in glory and a painting of the Madonna, St Anne and St Joachim. The church is served by diocesan clergy.

The Tomb of Pope Julius II is a sculptural and architectural ensemble by Michelangelo and his assistants, originally commissioned in 1505 but not completed until 1545 on a much reduced scale. Originally intended for St. Peter's Basilica, the structure was instead placed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli on the Esquiline in Rome after the pope's death. This church was patronized by the Della Rovere family from which Julius came, and he had been titular cardinal there. Julius II, however, is buried next to his uncle Sixtus IV in St. Peter's Basilica, so the final structure does not actually function as a tomb. As originally conceived, the tomb would have been a colossal structure that would have given Michelangelo the room he needed for his superhuman, tragic beings. This project became one of the great disappointments of Michelangelo's life when the pope, for unexplained reasons, interrupted the commission, possibly because funds had to be diverted for Bramante's rebuilding of St. Peter's. The original project called for a freestanding, three-level structure with some 40 statues. After the pope's death in 1513, the scale of the project was reduced step-by-step until, in April 1532, a final contract specified a simple wall tomb with fewer than one-third of the figures originally planned.The most famous sculpture associated with the tomb is the figure of Moses, which Michelangelo completed during one of the sporadic resumptions of the work in 1513. Michelangelo felt that this was his most lifelike creation. Legend has it that upon its completion he struck the right knee commanding, "now speak!" as he felt that life was the only thing left inside the marble. There is a scar on the knee thought to be the mark of Michelangelo's hammer.

Moses (Italian: Mosè [moˈzɛ]; c. 1513–1515) is a sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. Commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II for his tomb, it depicts the biblical figure Moses with horns on his head, based on a description in chapter 34 of Exodus in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible used at that time.