PAESTUM
campania
Paestum is the classical Roman name of a major Graeco-Roman city in the Campania region of Italy. It is located in the north of Cilento, near the coast about 85 km SE of Naples in the province of Salerno, and belongs to the commune of Capaccio.
Founded around the end of the VII century BC by colonists from the Greek city of Sybaris, originally was known as Poseidonia. Archaeological evidence indicates that the city was expanding with the building of roads, temples and other features of a growing city. Coinage, architecture and molded votive figurines all attest to close relations maintained with Metaponto in the VI and V centuries. It is not until the end of the V century BC that the city is mentioned, when according to Strabo the city was conquered by the Lucani. From the archaeological evidence it appears that the two cultures, Greek and Oscan, were able to get together and thrive. What is known is it later became the Roman city of Paestum in 273 BC after the Graeco-Italian Poseidonians sided with the loser, Pyrrhus, in war against Rome during the first quarter of the III century BC. During the invasion of Italy by Hannibal the city reamined faithful to Rome and afterwards was granted special favours such as the minting of its coniage. The city continued to prosper during the Roman imperial period, but started to go into decline between the IV and VII centuries. It was abandoned during the Middle Ages and its ruins only came to notice again in the XVIII century, following the rediscovery of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The decline and desertion were probably due to changes in local land drainage patterns, leading to swampy malarial conditions. The main features of the site today are the standing remains of three major temples in Doric style, dating from the first half of the VI century BC. These were dedicated to Hera, Apollo and Athena, although they have traditionally been identified as a basilica and temples of Netpune and Ceres, owing to XVIII-century mis-attribution. The city of Paestum covers an area of approximately 120 hectares. Only the 25 hectares that contain the three main temples have excavated. The other 95 remain on private land and have not been excavated. The city is surrounded by defensive walls that still stand. The walls are approximately 4750 m long, 5-7 m thick and 15 m high. Positioned long the wall are 24 square and round towers. There may have been up to 28 but some of them were destroyed during the construction of highway in XVIII century that effectively cuts the site in two.
TEMPLE OF HERA
The Temple of Hera, built around 550 BC by Greek colonists, with nine columns on the short sides and eighteen on the long ones and remains of the decoration of the architrave, is the oldest surviving temple of Paestum. XVIII-century archaeologists named it "The Basilica" because they mistakenly believed it to be a Roman building. A basilica in Roman times was a civil building, not a religious one. Inscriptions revealed that the goddess worshiped here was Hera. Later, an altar was unearthed in front of the temple, in the open-air site usual for a Greek altar; the faithful could attend rites and sacrificies without entering the cella.
TEMPLE OF APOLLO
The Temple of Apollo was built in 450 BC. Imposing and harmonious, it is formed by a base with three steps on which stand six columns on the short sides and fourteen on the long ones. The columns are all nine meters high and are united, on top, by an architrave supporting a sloping roof ending both on the front and in the back with two pediments. It has been in the past variously thought of as a temple dedicated to Poseidon or to Hera (as Temple of Hera II). There are visible on the east side the remains of two altars, one large and one smaller. The smaller one is a Roman addition, built when they cut through the larger one to build a road to the forum. Again, offertory statues around the larger altar are used to demonstrate that Apollo was the patron of the temple.
TEMPLE OF ATHENA
On the highest point of the town, some way from the other temples, is the Temple of Athena. It was built in 500 BC, with six columns on the short sides and thirteen on the long ones. It was for some time incorrectly thought to have been dedicated to Ceres. The architecture is transitional, being partly in the Ionic mode and partly early Doric. Three medieval Christian tombs in the floor show that the temple was at one time used as a Christian church.
THE AMPHITHEATER
To the north-west of the forum is the amphitheater. This is of normal Roman pattern, though much smaller than later examples. Only the southern half is visible; in 1930 AD, a road was built across the site, burying the northern half.
NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF PAESTUM
In the nearby National Archaeological Museum of Paestum there are precious materials coming from the town and from the neighbourhoods among which ceramics and scupltures, fictile little statues and bronzes.
Paestum is also renowned for its painted tombs, mainly belonging to the period of the Lucanian rule, while only one of them dates to the Greek period. It was found, on June 3rd 1968, in a small necropolis some 1,5 Km south of the ancient walls. The burial monument was named "Tomb of the Diver" (Italian "Tomba del Tuffatore") after the enigmatic scene, depicted on the covering slab, of a lonely young man diving in a stream of water. It was dated to the first half of the V century BC (about 470 BC), the "Golden Age" of the Greek town. The tomb is painted with the true fresco technique and its importance lies in being "the only example of Greek painting with figured scenes dating from the Orientalizing, or Classical periods to survive in its entirety. Among the thousands of Greek tombs known from this time (roughly 700-400 BC), this is the only one to have been decorated with frescoes of human subjects". The remaining four walls of the tombs are occupied by symposium related scenes, an iconography far more familiar from the Greek pottery, than the diving scene.
Open: Every day 09:00 am to 07:00 pm
Closed: the I and III Monday of the month
Entrance Fee: € 4,00
Reduced: € 2,00
Cumulative ticket: € 6,50 including visit to the Archaeological Area
Cumulative reduced ticket: € 3,25
Phone: 039-082-8811023
+39 347 6708101
