Ancient Roman column gets high-tech laser facelift

By CNN’s Barbie Latza Nadeau

Rome (CNN) — Vivid scenes of battlefield decapitations and female prisoners dragged off by their hair, carved into the 1,840-year-old marble Column of Marcus Aurelius towering over central Rome, are being brought back into focus through a $2.3 million laser restoration.

A team of 18 specialist restorers has been working since the spring of 2025, using handheld short-pulse lasers and chemical wraps to remove centuries of grime from the 100-foot-tall monument. The column was built between 180 CE, the year the Roman philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius died, and 193 CE.

The project marks the most extensive use of laser technology ever undertaken on an ancient monument, according to the chief restorer, Marta Baumgartner, who said the decision came despite the cost.

“The laser is a tool that is producing excellent results in restoration work, and the choice we made was to use it on the entire external frieze, the decorative band, of the column,” Baumgartner told reporters granted rare access to the 16-levels of scaffolding surrounding the monument.

“It costs more than traditional methods.” But it is “a method that delivers better restoration results, including in terms of timing.”

She also said the technology helps preserve the monument’s integrity. “But above all, it ensures respect for the material, the marble itself. It has fully guaranteed respect for the material and for the patinas, which are evidence of the stone’s natural aging.”

Scenes of divine intervention

Restorers are removing extensive black and gray deposits, filling cracks, repairing breaks and addressing marble erosion caused by decades of exposure to smog, rain and wind. They have also found that unsuitable materials used in 19th-century restorations compromised the fragile Carrara marble. Those materials are now being removed.

The column is one of the few Roman-era war monuments still standing in its original location. It’s located in front of the Palazzo Chigi, the official residence of Italy’s prime minister, build in 1562, linking ancient Rome with the modern state.

Spiral friezes depicting the Roman Empire’s wars under Aurelius wrap 23 times around the monument, forming a continuous narrative from base to summit. Plaster casts made in 1955 are displayed in the Museum of Roman Civilization in the Italian capital and remain an important resource for scholars.

The tower is made up of 18 marble drums carved with more than 2,000 figures, including soldiers, prisoners, gods and animals. There’s even a scene of divine intervention in the form of a deluge of rainfall. Marcus Aurelius appears repeatedly. While the scenes are difficult to discern from the ground, they are striking at close range.

In 1589, the original statue of Marcus Aurelius on top of the column was replaced with a bronze statue of St. Paul. A later restoration in the 1980s, used unsuitable materials, now removed. The square around the column was closed after a 2013 assassination attempt targeting guards at Palazzo Chigi and only reopened in 2023.

The laser restoration is scheduled for completion in early 2026.

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