ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK OF ELEA-VELIA

Elée was founded around 540 BC by Phocéens who had fled their city of Asia Minor conquered by the Persians. The geographical location of the colony along the channels of communication between Great Greece and Etruria contributed to its prosperity. In the Fifth century BC, the city housed a school of philosophy présocratique, the éléatique school. His most illustrious representative, Parménide, questioned the notion of Being, immutable and eternal. It is generally opposed to Ephesus in Ephesus, which supports perpetual movement. Parménide disciple, Zénon, is considered to be the inventor of dialectic. Later, Elée became a Roman colony; it was when she took the name Velia. The silting of its port and the opening of new commercial routes, more tour to the Adriatic Sea, caught its inexorable decline. Just like Paestum, the site was definitely abandoned because of the unhealthy places, suitable for malaria epidemics.

The visit. The Archaeological Park of Elée-Velia is quite extensive and consists of two distinct parts: the lower town and the acropolis, connected by the - got! - via Porta Rosa. The town of Porta Marina Sud is located in the town of Porta Marina Sud, which dates back to the th century BC. The various buildings of the city date from Hellenistic and Roman times. These include: thermal baths, whose frigidarium is decorated with mosaics of marine animals, the foundations of houses and shops, and a recorded to the stage layout, on several levels, whose function has not yet been determined. Via Porta Rosa leads to the high part of the city, with the remains of a sanctuary dedicated to Asclépios, the god of medicine. At the top, in a gorge tailladant the top of the hill, the Porta Rosa, a massive and well-treated book of the th century B.C., rare example of the use of the arc in Greek civil architecture. It allowed to reach the southern neighbourhood of the city, not yet explored. On the acropolis there is nothing left of the temple, probably dedicated to Athena: In the Middle Ages, it served as a foundation for a castle whose massive cylindrical tower still dominates the landscape. See also: the remains of a Roman theatre, as well as two well-established structures, where the objects found during excavations and tracing history and daily life in Elée-Velia.