Paestum

Il Blog

On Friday night, I drove down to Paestum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to some of the best preserved Greek temples in the Mediterranean. Originally an Oscan, then a Greek settlement called Poseidonia, the city was conquered and renamed by the Romans in the 3rd century BCE. Accordingly, the archaeological park is a pastiche of Greek and Roman elements.

Paestum was once situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea at the mouth of the Sele River. Trade was a major industry during the Greek period but during the Roman era, the economy declined and was based primarily on agriculture. This shift, as well as coastline changes due to silt deposits lead the city to drift into obscurity by the middle ages.

The best preserved buildings at Paestum are three Doric temples dating to the 6th century BCE. Their massive fluted columns were constructed with stacked drums of local stone and topped with Doric capitals. Their scale is quite amazing--the largest has 6 columns along the front and 14 down it’s side. It would have dwarfed even the largest temples in Imperial Rome.

The other buildings in Paestum have been pillaged by looters, many of them down to their foundations. Low brick walls and limestone blocks are all that remain of the Forum, gymnasium, and residential structures. There is a partially preserved amphitheater at the site, a testament to the city’s conquest by the Romans. It was deliberately placed beside the similarly-shaped comitium, center of democracy during the Greek period, to symbolize Roman supremacy.

A newly renovated museum stands just outside the site near the ticket office. Inside are some decorations from the temples, ex-votos, pottery, bronze items from burials, and several incredible frescos from Paestum’s necropolis.

Paestum is a bit too far from Rome to be a comfortable day trip but it’s quite close to Naples and the Amalfi Coast. The coast, known as the Cilento, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and an economical alternative to Amalfi.

Paestum

Sunday, February 26, 2006