The Hidden Stadium Beneath Piazza Navona

Everyone knows the Colosseum: the home of gladiator fights. The Circus Maximus? That's where Romans gathered to watch chariots race around the track. But there was a third great avenue for Roman entertainment: the Stadium of Domitian.

Here, crowds gathered to watch runners, wrestlers, boxers, and other athletes compete in games inspired by the Greek Olympics. And chances are you’ve already walked right through it without even realising.

Rome’s Stadium for Athletic Games

Hidden beneath Piazza Navona today, the Stadium of Domitian was built by Emperor Domitian and inaugurated in AD 86, after a devastating fire had damaged much of this part of the city. 

The emperor had a particular passion for Greek athletics and wanted to bring that tradition to Rome. To do so, he created the Capitoline Games: a grand festival held every four years in honour of Jupiter, inspired by the Olympic Games of Greece. Athletes travelled from across the Roman Empire to compete here, while next door in Domitian’s Odeon, musicians and poets took part in competitions of their own.

To host these games, Domitian built something Rome had never seen before: its first and only known permanent masonry stadium dedicated entirely to athletics. 

Around 30,000 spectators could fill its tiers of seating to watch runners sprint down the track, wrestlers grapple, boxers fight, and pentathletes compete in a series of events that tested strength, speed, and skill. These were competitions built around athletic excellence rather than the brutality of gladiatorial combat. 

Gladiators did appear here - but only briefly. After a fire badly damaged the Colosseum in AD 217, some gladiatorial games were temporarily moved to the stadium while repairs were underway. 

How a Roman Stadium Became Piazza Navona

Like so many ancient monuments in Rome, the stadium eventually fell out of use. By the end of the 5th century, the athletic competitions had disappeared. Over the centuries, parts of the structure were quarried for building materials, houses rose where the spectator seating had once stood, and the city slowly grew around it. 

The arena itself, however, was never permanently built over. As centuries passed, floods from the Tiber, collapsing buildings, and layers of debris gradually raised the ground level, while the enormous open space survived. That’s why Piazza Navona still follows the outline of the stadium today. 

Even its name tells the story: in agone (‘’at the games’’) gradually became Navona over the centuries. 

Seeing Piazza Navona with New Eyes 

Today, you can still descend about 4.5 metres below street level to explore part of the original stadium. The surviving brick arcades reveal the scale of the monument and bring the story of Rome’s athletic games back to life. It’s the missing piece that suddenly makes the whole square make sense. 

As you step back into Piazza Navona, you’ll notice things you almost certainly missed before. The cafés are still there, artists are still sketching portraits, and Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers still fills the centre. But now your eyes follow the gentle curve wrapping around the southern end of the piazza, the rows of buildings tracing the ancient seating, and the surprising length of the space stretching ahead of you. 

Suddenly, you’re no longer just admiring a beautiful Baroque square - you’re standing inside the footprint of an ancient Roman stadium. That’s what makes the Stadium of Domitian such a rewarding hidden gem. 

If you’d like to uncover the hidden story beneath Piazza Navona, our guided tour brings the underground remains - and the piazza above - to life, revealing how nearly 2,000 years of history still shape the city you see today.