AREA ARCHEOLOGICA

Paestum, whose roses were sung by Virgil and Horace, offers one of the most imposing architectural ensembles of Magna Graecia, with some of the best preserved temples of the ancient Greek world.

Practical information. The entrance to the archaeological area is along the Via Magna Grecia, on the south side; the exit is on the north side, along the same street. Group ticket: 12 €. The ticket is valid for 3 days and includes entrance to the archaeological site, the museum and the archaeological park of Elea-Velia. Since 2016, the interior of two of the three temples (those of Hera I and II) is accessible to visitors, after being closed to the public for 20 years. One can now walk between the majestic stone columns. Moreover, the interior of the temple of Hera I becomes accessible to the persons with reduced mobility.

Temple of Athena, also called temple of Ceres (north of the site). Built around 500 BC, that is to say 50 years after the temple of Hera I and 50 years before the temple of Hera II. The presence of numerous votive objects dedicated to the goddess Athena showed that the first attribution to the goddess Ceres was wrong. Moreover, the temple is located on the highest part of the site, as it was often the case for the temples of Athena among the Greeks (that one thinks, for example, of the Parthenon in Athens). This Doric temple is constituted of 6 columns in frontage and 13 laterals. The pronaos (a sort of vestibule preceding the cella) was composed of 8 columns in Ionic style, the oldest example of this style in Italy. Their remains (bases and 2 capitals) are exposed in the museum. The temple was transformed into a Christian church in the Middle Ages.

Forum. This vast rectangular square replaced the Greek agora when the city became Roman. It was the center of public life, with many stores. There is also the Gymnasium and the Temple of Peace. Nearby is what remains of the Roman amphitheater, only half of which was saved from the construction of the road in 1930.

Temple of Hera II, called temple of Neptune (a few meters north of the "basilica"). Built around 450 BC, this temple is one of the best preserved in Europe, majestic by its impressive dimensions and its fluted columns, perfectly preserved. The two pediments are still in place, as well as an important part of the internal structure. It looks very much like the temple of Zeus in Olympia, from which the Greek architect must have been inspired. In the ^18th century, archaeologists named it "temple of Neptune", the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Poseidon who bequeathed his name to the city, but research suggests that it was a temple dedicated to Hera.

Temple of Hera I, called basilica (in the south of the site). This temple is the oldest of Paestum, it dates from 550 B.C. It was identified by mistake in the ^XVIIIth century to a Roman basilica, because of the absence of some of its walls, which gave to its arrangement an aspect closer to a civil basilica. It is indeed a Doric temple, dedicated to Hera, wife of Zeus and deity particularly honored in Poseidonia. It is equipped with 9 columns in frontage and 18 columns on the sides, measuring almost 5 m in height. The columns of the pronaos are still standing, as well as some of the central columns that were meant to support the roof. The painted terracotta elements that decorated the crown of the building are on display in the museum.