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The square is lined by three palaces,
the New Palace and the Conservators' Palace (which house
the Capitoline Museums, among the oldest and most important
public collection of antique statuary in the world)
and the Senatorial palace, centre of political power
in Rome.
It was built over the ruins of the
Tabularium.
It has a double staircase, adorned
with Roman statues at its base. At its corner stands
a column upon which there is a copy of the famous bronze
statue of the she-wolf, emblem of Rome. In the middle
of the square stands the copy of the equestrian statue
of Marcus Aurelius.
The original, cast in bronze and then
gilded, has survived intact because it was thought to
represent Constantine, first Christian emperor
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