In pics | Italy opens ancient Roman square, ruins of building where Julius Caesar was killed

On Tuesday (June 19), authorities in Rome opened up a new walkway around the four temples from ancient Rome dating back as far as the 3rd century BC in the middle of one of the modern city’s busiest crossroads. 

The once-known as Largo Argentina (Argentina Square) archaeological site will now be open to history buffs for a stroll around the spot where legend says Julius Caesar met his bloody end. 

The site is home to four temples of Ancient Roman temples and the wall of the Curia of Pompeo where Julius Caesar was murdered. 

Until Tuesday, the only ones who could go near the so-called “Sacred Area,” on the edge of the site where Caesar was said to have been murdered were stray cats. 

According to the Associated Press, behind the two temples is a foundation and part of a wall that archaeologists believe were part of Pompey’s Curia.

What makes the once rectangular-shaped hall which is said to have temporarily hosted the Roman Senate is that legend has it, this was where the Roman dictator was stabbed to death by a group of aggrieved senators on the Ides of March or March 15 in 44 BC.

The visitors can now go around the area where Caesar is supposed to have exclaimed "Et tu, Brute?" as he saw his friend Brutus among his murderers. 

Prior to the restoration of the site which was first discovered and excavated during building work in Rome in the 1920s people would gaze down from behind barriers close to a busy road junction around Largo Argentina to catch a glimpse of the ruins of the ancient Roman temples. 

This is because the city had been built up, layer by layer, to levels several meters above the site where Caesar once formulated his political strategies but as of Tuesday, visitors will be able to move through the site at ground level using the walkway and even see the structures up close. 

(Photo: @gualtierieurope)

Claudio Parisi Presicce Rome’s top official for cultural heritage and an archaeologist called the ancient temple complex “one of the best-preserved remains of the Roman Republic,″ on Tuesday. 

According to AP, the temples have been designated A, B, C and D, and are believed to have been dedicated to female deities which emerged during the demolition of medieval-era buildings in the late 1920s as a part of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s campaign to remake the urban landscape. 

The archaeologists have also pinpointed the ruins as Pompey’s Curia as they "know it with certainty because latrines were found on the sides," of Pompey’s Curia, and ancient texts mentioned the latrines said Parisi Presicce, reported AP. 

(File Photo)

The Largo Argentina is also now home to a small display which shows some of the artifacts found during last century’s excavation which as per the AP included a colossal stone head of one of the deities honored in the temples, chinless and without its lower lip as well as a a stone fragment of a winged angel of victory.

The restored site, which was funded for by the Italian fashion house Bulgari, "Area Sacra" ('Sacred Area') was inaugurated by Rome's Mayor Roberto Gualtieri and Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, on Tuesday, with walkways and nighttime illumination. 

The Sacred Area’s wooden walkways are wheelchair and baby-stroller-friendly as well as equipped with an elevator platform for those who cannot handle stairs. The tickets for non-residents are 5 euros ($5.50) and the attraction is open every day except for Mondays and some major holidays. 

(Photo: @gualtierieurope)