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| Temple of Augustus (Pozzuoli) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Temple of Augustus (Pozzuoli) |
| Native name | Tempio di Augusto |
| Location | Pozzuoli, Campania, Italy |
| Coordinates | 40.8333°N 14.1167°E |
| Built | 1st century BC |
| Designation | UNESCO World Heritage Site (part of Naples, Pompeii and Herculaneum ensemble) |
| Type | Roman temple |
Temple of Augustus (Pozzuoli)
The Temple of Augustus in Pozzuoli is an ancient Roman temple located in the Puteoli complex within Pozzuoli, near Naples on the Bay of Naples and the Gulf of Pozzuoli. Constructed during the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire period, the temple has been associated with figures such as Augustus and events connected to Campania and the urban network that included Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Cumae. The building has long attracted scholars from institutions including the British School at Rome, the French School at Rome, and the Soprintendenza Archeologica for its architectural features and stratigraphic evidence tied to seismic and volcanic events like Mount Vesuvius eruptions and local bradyseism.
The site was developed in the late 1st century BC during the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, an era marked by figures such as Julius Caesar, Marcus Antonius, and Octavianus (later Augustus), and it functioned within municipal frameworks governed by magistrates similar to those in Ostia Antica and Capua. In the Imperial period the temple formed part of the public sanctuaries of Puteoli alongside forums and port facilities that connected to maritime trade networks involving Alexandria, Carthage, and Massalia. During the Middle Ages the temple was re-used and altered by authorities including the Normans and later the Kingdom of Naples, and it underwent transformations similar to those seen at Pantheon and Temple of Hercules Victor. In modern times antiquarians such as Giovanni Battista Foggini and scholars associated with the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei documented the monument before 19th- and 20th-century excavations by the Archaeological Superintendency of Naples and teams from universities like Sapienza University of Rome.
The temple exhibits features of Roman Republican and early Imperial architecture comparable to the orders and proportions found in the Maison Carrée, the Temple of Portunus, and the Temple of Concordia at Agrigento. Its plan is a pseudoperipteral design with engaged columns, echoing Hellenistic precedents from Pergamon and Ephesus, and employing materials such as local Campanian tufa, travertine, and imported marble akin to uses at Baiae and Cumae. The entablature, capitals, and cella align with interpretative parallels to works by architects discussed in treatises by Vitruvius and later commentators like Palladio and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Structural responses to subsidence and seismicity reflect engineering studies similar to restorations at Colosseum and Basilica of Maxentius, while decorative programs link to sculptural traditions seen in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum, Naples and finds from Stabiae.
Scholars debate the original dedication, with hypotheses associating the temple with Augustus cult practices, Capitoline triad worship as in Rome, or local deities venerated in Campanian sanctuaries such as at Cumaean Sibyl sites. The building participated in civic rituals paralleling ceremonies recorded for Imperial cult observances and municipal festivals like those attested in inscriptions from Volcei and Paestum. Its role in maritime votive practices connects it to port sanctuaries of Ostia and mercantile linkages with Syracuse and Tarentum, while later Christianization trends across Italy saw comparable reuses of pagan temples at sites like Santa Maria Antiqua and San Nicola dei Prefetti.
Conservation efforts have involved collaborations between the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per il Comune di Napoli and international institutions including teams from UNESCO advisory bodies and European restoration programs tied to Council of Europe initiatives. Restoration campaigns addressed issues from bradyseismic uplift documented in studies akin to those for Pozzuoli's Solfatara and stabilization works comparable to interventions at the Temple of Augustus, Nîmes and the Maison Carrée. Techniques have drawn on stratigraphic conservation methods developed at Pompeii and materials science research from laboratories at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and University of Naples Federico II.
Excavations and surveys yielded inscriptions, capitals, column fragments, and votive objects catalogued alongside collections from Roman Britain to Roman Africa, and studied by epigraphists at institutions such as the Epigraphic Society and scholars publishing in journals like Journal of Roman Archaeology and Römische Mitteilungen. Numismatic evidence from hoards parallels finds from Herculaneum and informs chronology debates alongside stratigraphic correlations with Vesuvius tephra layers analyzed by vulcanologists from INGV and geologists linked to University of Padua. Ongoing research involves remote sensing techniques employed also at Paestum and paleoseismological studies that integrate data from repositories like the British Museum and the Vatican Museums.
Category:Ancient Roman temples Category:Pozzuoli Category:Archaeological sites in Campania