The temple was erected in honor of the Emperor Hadrian, who was deified after his death. It is likely that construction of the temple had already begun under Hadrian himself, to dedicate it to his wife Vibia Sabina, who died and was deified in 136. Emperor Hadrian died in 138, and the work was completed in 145 by his son and successor, Antoninus Pius.

The temple was destroyed, and today only eleven of the thirteen original columns remain on the side façade, overlooking Piazza di Pietra. The square owes its name to the centuries-old persistence of the building's remains. The temple had eight columns on the front and thirteen on the long sides, and measured 100 x 90 meters. Excavations reveal that the street level on which the temple once stood is much lower than it is today.

In 1695, under Pope Innocent XII, the remains of the temple were incorporated by Carlo Fontana into the Palazzo della Dogana di Terra, intended for goods arriving in Rome by land. In 1831, the building housed the Rome Stock Exchange. In 1874, it became the seat of the Rome Chamber of Commerce, of which it remains the representative office today.

Since 2022, within the Sala delle Grida of the former Stock Exchange, the Chamber of Commerce has offered, as part of the Hadrianeum project, an immersive experience of the temple's reconstruction through a 20-minute video.