The Mausoleum of Augustus was Rome's largest circular tomb, 87 metres across and standing 45 metres high when Augustus built it in 28 BC, after defeating Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. The name itself was a calculated boast, evoking King Mausolus's wonder of the ancient world. Augustus crowned the structure with his own bronze statue and planted the tumulus with cypresses, though not before he'd visited Alexander the Great's tomb in Alexandria for inspiration.

The building had a busy afterlife. Medieval Rome turned it into a fortress for the Colonna family. The Renaissance made it a garden. By the 18th century, Portuguese Marquis Benedetto Correa de Sylva was staging bullfights inside, complete with Spanish-style bulls and buffaloes, until Pope Pius VIII banned the practice in 1829. The 20th century saw it become the Augusteo concert hall, seating 3,500, before Mussolini shut it down in 1936 to restore imperial dignity.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the mausoleum's transformation from imperial tomb through bullfighting arena to concert hall, explaining how Augustus used architecture to claim Alexander's legacy while revealing the Res Gestae inscription that immortalised his deeds on bronze tablets at the entrance.