Trajan’s Column: 1900 Years

To celebrate 1900 years of Trajan's Column, the V&A are hosting two discovery days, featuring a short film about the column that's narrated by historian Dan Snow, plus an immersive installation by Romanian artist Dreamrec that involves 3D elements and motion graphics projected onto the column cast. The 35-meter column, which still stands in Trajan's Forum in Rome, was built to document Emperor Trajan's war against the Dacians in the second century. Carvings of 2,500 figures run around the outside, leading up to the viewing platform, which can be reached by steps inside – the oldest complete spiral staircase, in fact. A plaster cast of the column is housed (in two pieces) in the V&A's Cast Courts, which were built specially in 1873.