• Home
• Europe
• Italy
• Pompeii

Doric Temple

Address: Regio VIII, Insula 7, 30

The Doric Temple, which occupies the southern part of the Triangular Forum, was built in the sixth century BC, when Pompeii was influenced by the powerful Greek state of Kuma. This temple was dedicated to the mythical Greek hero Hercules and Minerva (the Roman equivalent of Greek Athens), who according to legend founded Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum.

Doric Temple was reconstructed several times during the Samnite period, but may have been abandoned during the Roman era. The temple had solid wide corrugated columns with wide, very flat capitals, around the cella, that is, the main building of the temple.

The temple measures 28 meters by 21 meters. The stones were hewn from local volcanic tuffs. There was also a sundial with a small bench. They still see the inscription patron of the patron: "Lucius Sepunius Sandilanus, son of Lucius and Marc Gerenius Epidianus, son of Avla, Diumvir, dressed in judicial power put this bench and sundial at their own expense."

The foundation, unlike the foundations of other temples in Pompeii, was built of several high steps. A colonnade of 32 columns, with 7 columns on the short side and 9 columns on the wide side. Almost the entire building was constructed of tuffs. Only capitols were made of limestone from nearby Sarno.

The base (A) is well preserved and measures 21 x 28 meters with a narrow staircase to the south. Cella was divided into two chambers (B) and (C). In the inner chamber were tables for the victims. On a long pedestal on the northern outer wall of the cella were statues of terracotta deer. Today, only a few fragments remain from them.

Directly in front of the Doric temple at the foot of the stairs, where the main altar was located, surrounded by a small fence (D). Archaeologists believe that the temple was dedicated and used to commemorate the hero. Three remnants of tuffs on the side of the main altar apparently also was part of the second altar, although how exactly this structure looked difficult to say.