Alterations
While the number of interventions performed on Trajan’s Column have been limited, they are significant. The monument has been damaged by the use of scaffolding to examine the column, looting of the metal pins during the Mideval period, and erosion. So the use of a modern materials has been required to fix the small cracks and crevices.1 The stucco used for these repairs is made up of different colors and grain sizes in order to match the ancient marble. The original statue on top of the column has also been replaced, though not with a statue of Trajan. The statue currently on the monument is of St. Peter, and was placed there in 1588 by Pope Sixtus V, when he rededicated the monument to St. Peter.2
1. Cinzia Conti, “The Restoration of the Column of Trajan (1981-1988),” The Column of Trajan (2000): 248
2.Bruno Brizzi, “The Forum and the Column of Trajan After the Fall of the Empire,” The Column of Trajan (2000): 239