TEMPLE (Augustan Age, I century BC)

This is an Italic temple, intact, made of local travertine of Corinthian order, hexastyle, prostyle, dedicated to Goddess Minerva. Today it is the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Admired over the millennia, it was the heart of the town’s sanctuary. With a height of 15,52 m and a length of 17,42 m (maximum), the temple consists of six Corinthian columns with capitals featuring Acanthus leaves, the height of which is 8,78 metres (30 Roman feet) and spaced at 200 cm from one another. They are set on bases (with bulls and birds) and have proportioned collars that stand on plinths of 150 cm, not on the portico of m 5,35, but on the entrance steps, for a better use of the space. A horizontal feature in three parts and a 58 cm high frieze with holes caused by bolts of an inscription; a tympanum of 150 cm which had to contain the built-in triangle: high-reliefs, a clypeus or a flower crown with some golden bronze wavy ribbons, frames, mouldings and baccellature. A cell with isodomic blocks of rose limestone from Mount Subasio, walled in with mortar (opus vittatum); in the internal part some remains of the floor with smoothed slabs. Behind the cell is a space for ritual ablutions.