The Capitoline Hill is the smallest of Rome's seven hills, but it was the religious and political center of the city since its foundation more than 2500 years ago. Once the political and religious centre of Ancient Rome, it is now the site of the Piazza del Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo, and of the city's administrative offices. The Capitoline Hill is where the city's first and holiest temples stood, including its most sacred, the Temple to Jupiter and the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno, and their daughter Minerva). Started by Rome's fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus and continued by his son Lucius Tarquinius Superbus It was considered one of the largest and the most beautiful temples in the city (its foundations are still to be seen inside the Capitoline Museums) and was probably founded on an earlier Etruscan temple of Veiovis, the remains and cult statue of which survive. The great temple was dedicated in 509 b.c. Destroyed three times by fire, it was last rebuilt by the emperor Domitian.

On the northern summit of the Capitol opposite the Capitolium where the temple stood was the citadel (arx). On the side overlooking the Forum stood the Tabularium, where the state archives were kept. The space between was called Asylum.

It was on the Capitoline hill that the Sabines, creeping to the Citadel, were let in by the Roman maiden Tarpeia. For this she was the first to suffer the punishment for treachery of being thrown off the steep crest of the hill to fall on the dagger-sharp Tarpeian Rocks below where still until the 1st cent. a.d. state criminals were hurled to their death from. In the Middle Ages the Capitol remained the political center of Rome. In the 16th cent. Michelangelo designed the present plan. A flight of steps leads to the square on top of the hill; on one side of the square is the Palazzo dei Conservatori, on the other, Palazzo Nuovo. Both buildings house collections of antiquities which form a great section of the Capitoline Museum. In the center of the square is the copy of the ancient equestrian bronze statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius which original is also preserved inside.