Piazza del Campidoglio (English: Capital Square) is a public square on the top of the ancient Capitoline Hill, between the Roman Forum and the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy. The square includes three main buildings, the Capitoline Museums, Palazzo Senatorio and the Palazzo Nuovo. The hilltop square was designed by Michelangelo in the 16th century. Palazzo Senatorio is today the seat of the Municipality of Rome. The Capitoline Museums are the oldest public museums in the world. They are a group of art and archeological museums in the plaza that include Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo. History Piazza del Campidoglio on the top of Capitoline Hill, took on its current layout in the 16th-century, when Pope Paul III commissioned Michelangelo to complete a renovation for the visit of emperor Charles V of Habsburg to Rome. The project involved the makeover of the façades of the Palazzo Senatorio, built a few years earlier on the Roman ruins of the Tabularium (old records office of ancient Rome), and of the 15th-century Palazzo dei Conservatori. It included the construction of the Palazzo Nuovo and the addition of various sculptures and statues, including the Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, placed in the center of the square. Since the Middle Ages, the Piazza del Campidoglio has been the seat of the civil administration of the city. On the remains of the Tabularium stood a fortress of the Corsi family, which the Roman people took possession of in 1114. It was destined as the seat of the city senate and was enlarged in the 14th century. The dirt clearing in front, which housed the gatherings of the people, was flanked by buildings intended as the headquarters of the Banderesi (the captains of the city militia). Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti (1475–1564), known as Michelangelo, was an Renaissance artist and architect. He was commissioned by Pope Paul III, to rebuild the Piazza del Campidoglio because he wanted a symbol of the new Rome to impress Charles V, who was expected to visit Rome in 1538. Since the Middle Ages the piazza was in such a state of abandonment to be also called "colle caprino" (goat hill), as it was used for grazing goats after the triumphal journey organized in Rome in honor of Charles V in 1536. The existing design of the Piazza del Campidoglio and the surrounding palaces was created by Michelangelo. At the height