VASSAL TEMPLE

This temple, located on the plateau of Vassae, at an altitude of 1,130 m, was dedicated to Apollo Epikourios. It would have been built by Iktinos, the architect of the Parthenon, about 420 BC. Apollo, warrior god who says Epikourios in Greek, would have in fact come to the aid of the Phigalians against the Spartans in 629 BC, and especially against the plague which ravaged the country during the Peloponnesian War. This temple was discovered in 1765 by the French architect J. Bocher. In 1811-1812, a group of amateur European archaeologists took a close interest in Apollo Epikourios and exported more than 300 pieces, including the frieze made up of 23 plates representing the battle of the Amazons and the Centaurs, which was sold to the British Museum. The metal frame, placed by the ancient builders to protect the monument against earthquakes, was removed by local people to make weapons, and a major restoration work was necessary. Started in 1902 by the Greek Archaeological Society, this restoration is still in progress. In 1987, the tent that covers the temple was put in place against the rain and snow that falls in these regions. The limestone has already suffered a lot from the weather, but the work of the archaeologists is remarkable.

Visit of the site. Under its cover, this temple is really one of the best preserved of the ancient world, of the classical period, with the Theesion of the Agora of Athens.

A very particular temple... whose architecture is inspired by the temple of Apollo in Delphi. First, instead of having 6 columns in the width and 15 in length, it has only 13 in length. Moreover, the Corinthian, Doric and Ionic columns are joined for the first time.

Then, it presents a north-south orientation, whereas all the other Greek temples have an east-west orientation.

Finally, what is most interesting is the interior of this temple.

If we begin the visit from the south, on the side of the entrance, we notice first the first room or opisthodome. We can see two doric columns.

The room which follows, if one continues the visit by the right of the temple, on the east side, is the adytum. It communicates with the central room, or cella, from which it is separated by a Corinthian column, which must be one of the first of its kind. It is in this room that the statue of Apollo was placed; a door is pierced in the east for religious reasons. The light could thus illuminate the statue of Apollo during the day. The east-west balance was thus partially restored. This door connected the adytum with the pteron, which is the whole space surrounding the inner monument.

The next room is the central room, or cella. It is surrounded by Ionic half-columns, connected to the wall by one of their sides. The capitals and the bases are quite original. Inside the cella, on all the columns, ran a frieze of 31 m length representing an amazonomachy and a centauromachy, probably the fight of the Lapithes and the Centaurs, which one can see today in the British Museum.

Finally, the last room is the vestibule, or prodromos: closed, also, by two Doric columns, it gave access to the central room. This temple is a very rare curiosity in Greece. It was built by craftsmen whose houses are perhaps the buildings that one sees in front of it but of which there is not much left.