The "Sacra" areas
Within the city are located two large urban sanctuaries: the Athenaion north of Heraion south. In temenos (the space devoted) south of the shrine, for the goddess Hera, were raised on the oldest and newest of the three major temples of Poseidonia; opposite dell'agora, about 500 meters further north, was built instead only era in the late archaic another shrine, dedicated to Athena.
The names that are known today were allocated to them from the early eighteenth century travelers and scholars. The south building was interpreted as a Roman basilica, while the temple located immediately north, was attributed to Neptune, the equivalent of Poseidonion to which 'should' be taking the largest of the three temples, the third building, located at opposite the city, and near a door, he thought it was consecrated in Ceres.
Searches were later allowed to clarify the powers of the temples, although in the literature have kept the names conventional. It was thus possible to give Hera the great southern shrine which includes implanting several other cults, and the northern Athena.
Northern Sanctuary
Restricted to the south plateia (road large) who proceeds in the east / west and served as a separation with the agora, the area was santuariale bounded on the west side of the plateia in a north / south, now no longer visible ; Unknown are the northern and eastern limits.
The area was occupied from the first generation of settlers from an ancient temple whose remains are still visible, to which the sheets fictile relevant to the frame of eaves, exposed in the Archaeological Museum in the sanctuaries of urban and suburban of the city.
The column, which stands alone above a basic three steps, is the result of an arbitrary reconstruction made in the'50s with old material.
The Temple of Athena
Dedicated to the goddess Athena, as especially the discovery of a number of votive clay with the figure of the goddess armed, the building of Doric order, was built around 500 BC sanctuary in northern Iraq. The temple, with stilobate of 14.54 x 32.88 meters, is distinguished by a refined aesthetic sense, expressed in the key second set strict geometrical relationships, it is a periptera esastilo, with six columns on the short side and thirteen on long sides On a crepidine three steps, whose cell, preceded by pronaos with Ionic colonnade, was built with a 1:3 ratio between length and width. Between pronaos and the cell are the ruins of the stairs that were used to access the roof for regular maintenance. On the eastern side, which was the main front, there is a ramp.
The cell, due to receive a statue of worship, is now almost entirely disappeared, and remains in situ only the base of the floor, elevated about 1 meter compared to the peristyle, while two ionic capitals of columns in front are preserved along with other architectural elements the temple at the shrines of urban and suburban museum, along with part of the frame with pipes lion in sandstone.
The peristasi, in excellent state of preservation, presents all 34 columns still standing, to support the weight dell'architrave, perfectly intact. The columns have slender proportions, with little un'entasi pronounced.
Architectural decoration are preserved in sandstone, well, as well as part of a triglifo and an element of the frame of the crowning frieze, some blocks of the same, with a head leonina pipes protruding from a background palmettes decorated with lotus flowers and deeply incised, that would make a great color effect. Short on the sides of the central entablature of the temple, with Doric frieze and gable, have been rebuilt. The Ionic capitals are the only examples of monumental archaic age found in Magna Graecia. Stylistically with a unique mix of elements Doric and Ionic, characteristics which are reflected in Greater all'Heraion coeval Temple at the mouth of Sele. East of the temple, about 30 meters, is placed on the altar which took place the cult itself, according to the Greek religious tradition. In late old age (VII-VIII century AD.) Temple was transformed into a place of Christian worship, with the closure of the spaces between the columns, killing the cell wall and the removal of burials nell'ambulacro South; now abandonment, the building was used as in 800' stable.