Capitoline Hill. Though most of the buildings on Michelangelo's piazza date from the Renaissance, this hill was once the nerve center of the Roman Empire, the place where the city's first and holiest temples stood, including its most sacred, the Tempio di Giove (Temple of Jupiter). The city's archives were kept in the Tabularium (hall of records), the tall tufa structure that forms the foundation of today's city hall, the Palazzo Senatorio. By the Middle Ages, Monte Caprino (Goat Hill), as the hill was already called, had fallen into ruin. In 1536 Pope Paul III (1468-1549) decided to restore its grandeur for the triumphal entry into the city of Charles V (1500-58), the Holy Roman Emperor, and called upon Michelangelo to create the staircase ramp; the buildings and facades on three sides of Capitol Hill; the slightly convex pavement and its decoration; and the pedestal for the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. A work from the 2nd century AD, the statue stood here from the 16th century until 1981. The only celebrated equestrian bronze statue to survive from classical antiquity, it was mistakenly believed to represent the Christian emperor Constantine rather than the pagan Marcus Aurelius, hence its endurance through the centuries. A legend foretells that some day the statue's original gold patina will return, heralding the end of the world. The city's authorities had it restored and placed in the courtyard of the Museo Capitolino, saving not only what was left of the gold but also the statue's bronze, which had been seriously damaged by air pollution. A copy was placed on the original pedestal in 1997. As Michelangelo's preeminent urban set piece, the piazza sums up all the majesty of High Renaissance Rome.