Valle dei Templi
Encyclopedia
Agrigento
Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden...
(ancient Greek Akragas), Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It is one of the most outstanding examples of Greater Greece art and architecture, and is one of the main attractions of Sicily as well as a national monument of Italy. The area was included in the UNESCO Heritage Site list in 1997. Much of the excavation and restoration of the temples was due to the efforts of archaeologist Domenico Antonio Lo Faso Pietrasanta (1783–1863), who was the Duke of Serradifalco
Serradifalco
Serradifalco is a town and comune in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, Italy.- History :Serradifalco was founded in a feudal fief which bore the same name since the late 15th century...
from 1809 through 1812.
The term "valley" is a misnomer, the site being located on a ridge outside the town of Agrigento.
Overview
The Valley includes remains of seven temples, all in Doric style. The ascription of the names, apart from that of the Olympeion, are a mere tradition established in Renaissance times. The temples are:- Temple of JunoJuno (mythology)Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...
, built in the 5th century BC and burnt in 406 BC406 BCYear 406 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Cossus, Ambustus, Cossus and Potitus...
by the Carthaginians. It was usually used for the celebration of weddings. - Temple of Concordia, whose name comes from a Latin inscription found nearby, and which was also built in the 5th century BC. Turned into a church in the 6th century AD, it is now one of the best preserved in the Valley.
- Temple of HeraclesHeraclesHeracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
, who was one of the most venerated deities in the ancient Akragas. It is the most ancient in the Valley: destroyed by an earthquake, it consists today of only eight columns. - Temple of Zeus Olympic, built in 480 BC to celebrate the city-state's victory over Carthage. It is characterized by the use of large scale atlasesAtlas (architecture)In the classical European architectural tradition an atlas is a support sculpted in the form of a man, which may take the place of a column, a pier or a pilaster...
. - Temple of Castor and PolluxCastor and PolluxIn Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces were twin brothers, together known as the Dioscuri . Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who visited Leda in the guise of a swan...
. Despite its remains including only four columns, it is now the symbol of modern Agrigento. - Temple of VulcanVulcan (mythology)Vulcan , aka Mulciber, is the god of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes in ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism. Vulcan is usually depicted with a thunderbolt. He is known as Sethlans in Etruscan mythology...
, also dating from the 5th century BC. It is thought to have been one of the most imposing constructions in the valley; it is now however one of the most eroded. - Temple of AsclepiusAsclepiusAsclepius is the God of Medicine and Healing in ancient Greek religion. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts; his daughters are Hygieia , Iaso , Aceso , Aglæa/Ægle , and Panacea...
, located far from the ancient town's walls; it was the goal of pilgrims seeking cures for illness.
The Valley is also home to the so-called Tomb of Theron, a large tuff
Tuff
Tuff is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Tuff is sometimes called tufa, particularly when used as construction material, although tufa also refers to a quite different rock. Rock that contains greater than 50% tuff is considered...
monument of pyramidal shape; scholars suppose it was built to commemorate the Romans killed in the Second Punic War
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...
.
Temple of Juno Lacinia
This temple was constructed on a mostly artificial spur. It dates to c. 450 BC, measuring 38.15 x 16.90 m: it is in Doric style, peripterosPeripteros
Peripteros is the special name given to a type of ancient Greek or Roman temple surrounded by a portico with columns. It refers to the useful element for the architectural definition of buildings surrounded around their outside by a colonnade on all four sides of the cella , creating a four-sided...
6 columns wide by 13 long, preceded by a pronaos and opisthodomos
Opisthodomos
An opisthodomos can refer to either the rear room of an ancient Greek temple or to the inner shrine, also called the adyton ; the confusion arises from the lack of agreement in ancient inscriptions. In modern scholarship, it usually refers to the rear porch of a temple...
. The basement has four steps.
Current remains (including anastylosis
Anastylosis
Anastylosis is an archaeological term for a reconstruction technique whereby a ruined building or monument is restored using the original architectural elements to the greatest degree possible...
from the 18th Century onwards) consist of the front colonnade with parts of the architrave
Architrave
An architrave is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns. It is an architectural element in Classical architecture.-Classical architecture:...
and of the frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
. Only fragments of the other three sides survive, with few elements of the cella
Cella
A cella or naos , is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture...
. The building was damaged in the fire of 406 BC and restored in Roman times, with the substitution of clay marble roof tiles with ones and the addition of a steep rise in the area where today can be seen the remains of the altar.
Nearby are arcosolia and other sepultures from Byzantine times, belonging to the late 6th century AD renovation of the Temple of Concordia into a Christian church.
Temple of Concordia
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
existing today. It has a peristatis
Peristasis (architecture)
The Peristasis was a four-sided porch or hall of columns surrounding the cella in an ancient Greek peripteros temple. This allowed priests to pass round the cella in cultic processions. If such a hall of columns surrounds a patio or garden, it is called a peristyle rather than a peristasis...
of 6 x 13 columns built over a basement of 39.44 x 16.91 m; each Doric column has twenty grooves and a slight entasis
Entasis
In architecture, entasis is the application of a convex curve to a surface for aesthetic purposes. Its best-known use is in certain orders of Classical columns that curve slightly as their diameter is decreased from the bottom upwards. In the Hellenistic period some columns with entasis are...
, and is surmounted by an architrave with triglyph
Triglyph
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze, so called because of the angular channels in them, two perfect and one divided, the two chamfered angles or hemiglyphs being reckoned as one. The square recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric...
s and metope
Metope (architecture)
In classical architecture, a metope is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a building of the Doric order...
s; also perfectly preserved are the tympani
Tympanum (architecture)
In architecture, a tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, bounded by a lintel and arch. It often contains sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Most architectural styles include this element....
. The cella, preceded by a pronaos, is accessed by a single step; also existing are the pylons with the stairs which allowed to reach the roof and, over the cella's walls and in the blocks of the peristasis entablature
Entablature
An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave , the frieze ,...
, the holes for the wooden beam
Beam (structure)
A beam is a horizontal structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending. The bending force induced into the material of the beam as a result of the external loads, own weight, span and external reactions to these loads is called a bending moment.- Overview...
of the ceiling. The exterior and the interior of the temple were covered by polychrome stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
. The upper frame had gutters with lion-like protome
Protome
Protome is an adornment on utensils or works of art in the form of a frontal view of an animal head or bust of a human. Protomes are often featured in ancient art....
s, while the roof was covered by marble tiles.
When the temple was turned into a church the entrance was moved to the rear, and the rear wall of the cella had to be destroyed. The spaces between the columns were closed, while 12 arched openings were created in the cella, in order to obtain a structure with one nave and two aisles. The pagan altar was destroyed and sacristies were carved out in the eastern corners. The sepultures visible inside and outside the temple date to the High Middle Age.
Temple of Asclepius
The temple of Asclepius is located in the middle of the San Gregorio plain. Its identification is based on a mention by PolybiusPolybius
Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...
(I, 18, 2), who states that the temple was "in front of the city", one mile away. However, as the actual distance does not correspond and the size of the building is relatively small, scholars remains dubious about this attribution.
The small temple, probably dating to the late 5th century BC and measuring 21.7 x 10.7 m, rises over a basement with three steps. Its peculiarity is the fake opysthodomus with two semi-columns in the external side of the rear cella. Also extant are parts of the entablature, with lion-like protomes, a frieze and a geison
Geison
Geison is an architectural term of relevance particularly to ancient Greek and Roman buildings, as well as archaeological publications of the same...
pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
.
The sanctuary housed a bronze statue of Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
by Myron
Myron
Myron of Eleutherae working circa 480-440 BC, was an Athenian sculptor from the mid-5th century BC. He was born in Eleutherae on the borders of Boeotia and Attica. According to Pliny's Natural History, Ageladas of Argos was his teacher....
, a gift to the city by Scipio
Scipio Africanus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus , also known as Scipio Africanus and Scipio the Elder, was a general in the Second Punic War and statesman of the Roman Republic...
, which was stolen by Verres
Verres
Gaius Verres was a Roman magistrate, notorious for his misgovernment of Sicily. It is not known what gens he belonged to, though some give him the nomen Licinius.-As governor:...
.
Temple of Heracles
The traditional name of this temple comes from another mention by Cicero about a temple dedicated to the classical hero "not far from the forum"; however, it has never been proven the latter (the agoraAgora
The Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-states. Early in Greek history , free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the Agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later, the Agora also served as a marketplace where...
of the Greek city) was located in this point.
Stylistically, the temple belongs to the last years of the 6th century BC. It has been also suggested that this temple was one of first built under Theron
Theron
Theron, originally Greek pronounced and meaning "Hunter", or as a last name , may refer to:*Theron of Acragas , 5th century BC tyrant of Acragas, Sicily*Therons, a race of fictional aliens in the Dan Dare stories...
. Also the entablature
Entablature
An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave , the frieze ,...
, of which parts have been found, would date it to the 470-460s or the middle 5th century BC (though the more recent remains could be a replacement of the older ones). One hypothesis is that the temple was begun before the Battle of Himera
Battle of Himera (480 BC)
The Battle of Himera , supposedly fought on the same day as the more famous Battle of Salamis, or on the same day as the Battle of Thermopylae, saw the Greek forces of Gelon, King of Syracuse, and Theron, tyrant of Agrigentum, defeat the Carthaginian force of Hamilcar the Magonid, ending a...
, to be completed only in the following decades. Polyaenus
Polyaenus
Polyaenus or Polyenus vs. e]]; , "many proverbs") was a 2nd century Macedonian author, known best for his Stratagems in War , which has been preserved. The Suda calls him a rhetorician, and Polyaenus himself writes that he was accustomed to plead causes before the emperor...
mentions a temple of Athena being built under Theron outside the city, which could be identified with that of "Hercules", though also with a new one in the inner acropolis
Acropolis
Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...
.
The building, with 20th century anastylosis, measures 67 x 25.34 m, with a peristais of 6 x 15 Doric columns and a cella with pronaos and opysthodomus, is located over a three-step basement. It is the first example (later become common in the Agrigento temples) of pylons inserted between the pranos and cella, housing the stair which allowed inspections of the roof. The columns are rather high and have wide capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
. On the eastern side are remains of the large altar.
Olympeion field
On the other side of the road running through the Golden Gate of the ancient city, is a plain commanded by the huge Olympeion field. This includes a platea with a large temple to Olympian Zeus, plus other areas still under investigation. These include a sanctuary, with remains of a paved square, a complex sacellumSacellum
In ancient Roman religion, a sacellum is a small shrine. The word is a diminutive from sacer . The numerous sacella of ancient Rome included both shrines maintained on private properties by families, and public shrines...
("holy enclosure") and a tholos
Tholos
Τholos is the name given to several Ancient Greek structures and buildings:**The Tholos at Athens was the building which housed the Prytaneion, or seat of government, in ancient Athens...
. This, after another gate, is followed by a sanctuary of chtonic deities, an archaic sanctuary, the so called colimbetra (where was a still unknown gate) and the tip of the spur where the sanctuary is located, with the temple of Vulcan.
The Olympeion complex's main attraction is the huge temple of Olympian Zeus, which was described with enthusiastic words by Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
and mentioned by Polybius. Today it is reduced to ruins due to destruction begun in antiquity and continued through the 18th century, when the temple was used as a quarry for the port of Porto Empedocle
Porto Empedocle
Porto Empedocle is a town and comune in Italy on the coast of the Strait of Sicily, administratively part of the province of Agrigento. It is the namesake of Empedocles , a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of the city of Agrigentum , in his day a Greek colony in Sicily...
.
Near the south-western corner of the temples is a small edifice (12,45 x 5,90 m) with two naves and a deep pronaos, a double entrance and what has been identified as an altar. Its dating is controversial, though scholars have assigned it to the archaic era, due to the discovery of numerous 6th century BC vases. Also archaic is another sacellum, which later was replaced by a classical edifice. These are followed by the scant remains of a temple (called "Tempio L") dating to the mid-5th century BC, measuring 41.8 x 20.20 meters, to which, in the 3rd century BC, a Hellenistic entablature was added.
Temple of the Dioscuri
North to the Tempio L are the corner of "Temple of Castor and PolluxCastor and Pollux
In Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces were twin brothers, together known as the Dioscuri . Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who visited Leda in the guise of a swan...
", which is in a fact a modern reconstruction from the early 19th century, created using pieces from various other temples. It includes four columns and an entablature mounted over the foundings of an originary temple 31 x 13.39 m, and which would have been a Doric perypteros with 6 x 13 columns, and which dated to about the mid-5th century BC.
Temple of Vulcan
On the other side of the valley is the last spur of the hill, commanded by the remains of the Temple of Vulcan. It is a Doric-style building from the 5th century BC, with an archaic sacellumm enclosed into a Classic-era cella. The sacellum measures 13.25 x 6.50 meters; its decoration, dating to c. 560-550 BC, has been recently reconstructed. The classic temple, a Doric perypteros, measured 43 x 20.85 meters, rising mounted on a four-step krepidoma and having 6 x 13 columns; it dates to around 430 BC.Other remains
On the western side of the city are the remains of Gates VI and VII, the first probably lying on the road to Heracles, the second having two towers and two external bastions (one having 15-metre thick walls); northwards are the remains of Gates VIII and IX, now surrounded by illegal buildings.At the western tip of the area in which the Temple of Concordia lies, are parts of a late-ancient or early-medieval necropolis, constructed on existing cisterns. Other tombs and catacombs
Catacombs
Catacombs, human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place can be described as a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman empire...
are visible in the so-called Grotte Fragapane, dating to the 4th Century AD.
These late-Roman and Byzantine necropolises lie in an area used for tombs since ancient times. One of these, the so called Tomb of Theron
Theron of Acragas
Theron , son of Aenesidamus, was a Greek tyrant of the town of Acragas in Sicily from 488 BC. He soon became an ally of Gelo, who at that time controlled Gela, and from 485 BC Syracuse. Gelo later became Theron's son-in-law....
, is a naiskos sepulchre with square plan. Gate IV is located near the tomb of Theron: probably one of the most important in the city, as it led to the sea.
West of the Olympeion, are remains of two insulae (residences) 38 m wide, connected by a square to the ancient Gate V. It is likely that they were built re-using structures belonging to the sacred area of the Olympeion. Nearby is a sanctuary with an L-shaped portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
from the early 5th century BC, which is annexed to Gate V. In the area are also two archaic (mid-6th century BC) temples.
On the northern side of Gate V is a large stone square leading to the "Sanctuary of the Chtonic Gods".
The so-called "Oratory of Phalaris
Phalaris
Phalaris was the tyrant of Acragas in Sicily, from approximately 570 to 554 BC.-History:He was entrusted with the building of the temple of Zeus Atabyrius in the citadel, and took advantage of his position to make himself despot. Under his rule Agrigentum seems to have attained considerable...
" is in fact a Roman temple, measuring 12.40 x 8.85 m.
See also
- The Valley of the Temples. A visitor's guide to the Valley of the Temples
- Architecture of Ancient GreeceArchitecture of Ancient GreeceThe architecture of Ancient Greece is the architecture produced by the Greek-speaking people whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland and Peloponnesus, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Asia Minor and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest...
- Greek templeGreek templeGreek temples were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in Greek paganism. The temples themselves did usually not directly serve a cult purpose, since the sacrifices and rituals dedicated to the respective deity took place outside them...
- List of Greco-Roman roofs
- Valley of the Temples - photo gallery