Temple of Paestum

Paestum, the Roman name for the Greek colony of Poseidonia in southern Italy, on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 60 miles south of modern Naples, flourished during the 6th-4th centuries BC. It sometimes happens that Classical Greek remains in Italy and Sicily are better preserved than counterparts in Greece; at Paestum there are two large, early Doric temples of about 460 BC, almost contemporary with the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, plus a smaller, slightly later one. Although there have been losses since Piranesi engraved the remains of the Temple of Hera (formerly called “the Basilica” because its patron was unknown) in the 18th century, both this and the so-called Temple of Neptune (the Roman Poseidon) are still remarkably well preserved. The exterior columns are standing and, inside, there are survivals of both tiers of the two storeys.

Work in the colonies was generally less refined than in Greece, and the Paestum temples are built of travertine stone, common in Italy, though they would have been covered with marble stucco. The Temple of Neptune has 14 columns, while the Temple of Hera has 18, and nine on the ends, an unexpected number in relation to the dimensions, but no doubt planned to create an effect no longer evident. The columns in the cella have a considerable convex curve, greater than in any other known temples. That makes them seem taller and stronger but, compared with the Parthenon; these temples have a rather heavy look.

Another characteristic of buildings outside Greece was that the builders felt less strictly bound by convention, for instance in introducing Ionic features in the Doric Order. The flutes of the columns of the Paestum temples end in a semicircle, usually an Ionic characteristic and they have an almost unique feature in the rounded band of the capitals, known as the echinus. Normally plain, they are carved with a decorative pattern, each one different from its neighbors. The only other known example of this occurs in the small temple, usually called the Temple of Ceres, built a generation or two later.

Temple of Apollo, Bassae

The Temple of Apollo at Bassae is remarkable in representing all three of the Classical Greek Orders. A hexastyle temple, with six columns across the front of the porch, and 13 columns along the sides, it was built in about 430 BC, in grey limestone with a marble frieze and metopes, by the little state of Phigalia as thanksgiving for deliverance from plague. The architect was Ictinus, architect of the Parthenon. Although there was a family relationship to the Parthenon, in some respects the temple at Bassae, though probably built later, harks back to earlier traditions. A possible explanation is that it was influenced by the earlier Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the god’s chief shrine, a theory supported by the unusual orientation of the temple, which faces north, towards Delphi. It is Doric outside and Ionic inside, but it also had at least one Corinthian capital on a solitary free standing column, which supported the frieze between cella and adytum, where there is usually a wall, and probably others on adjacent half-columns.

High in the mountains of Arcadia, the temple was unknown except to locals until it was discovered by a French architect in 1765. His investigation was cut short by murderous bandits, but his report aroused widespread interest and resulted in the first major international archaeological expedition in 1811-12. Given the early date, it was carried out in a responsible, scientific manner and was a great success; the archaeologists seem to have enjoyed themselves eating roast kid, drinking rough wine from goatskin flasks, and watching rustic dances. Some of the marbles eventually found their way to the British Museum, but the Corinthian capital was unfortunately not among them. Though there are more colorful explanations of its disappearance, it was probably inadvertently left behind on the site.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassae

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/apolloepicurius.html

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Temples_of_Paestum.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paestum