Archeological site of Paestum - Italy - World Heritage Sites on Waymarking.com

Paestum (Paestum Italian) is a recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site in the region of Campania in the province of Salerno in Italy. The place belongs to the municipality of Capaccio.

The city was founded under the name Poseidonia around 600 BC by Greeks from Sybaris or Troizen. The place is thus a colony of a colony , a so-called plant city , Greek Apoikia . The fertile landscape and extensive trade leads within a few generations to prosperity, which in itself 5 and 6 Century BC in the construction of large temples, the ruins of which are still standing , put it. Around 400 BC conquered the Lucanians the city and renamed them in Paistos . Maybe, but it was also simply a merger of the cut of the home culture colonists with indigenous cultural forms . 274-273 BC it was during the conquest of Campania by the Romans under the name of Paestum to Latin Colonia . In this case, this took little account of old customs and traditions . There were major transformations and possibly an extensive exchange of populations . In the Roman Empire Paestum lost in wealth and importance. After being destroyed in the 9th Century by the Saracens , and in the 11th Century Paestum was abandoned by the Normans . The decline was accelerated by the swamping of the surrounding area and the resulting risk of malaria . The inhabitants moved to escape malaria , on higher ground around and founded the village of Capaccio .
Paestum can show significant monuments from Greek and Roman times . Of particular importance is the three large Doric temples, which are each an example for an architectural epoch of the Doric architectural style .
The archaic Hera Temple (540 BC) - called Basilica - was one of the largest hitherto established Greek stone temples at all.
The Temple of Athena attributed (around 510 BC), formerly of Ceres , is considerably smaller. In him is particularly interesting that this actually Doric temple has some style elements that do not belong in the canon of Doric architecture. For example, its decorative elements on the upper end of the architrave and also in geison that belong rather to ionic entablature .
The so-called Temple of Poseidon finally ( 450 BC ) - also dedicated this was actually the Hera - has the sophisticated designs of the recently built temple of Zeus at Olympia.
Furthermore, a small Roman amphitheater, the meeting place of the citizens , the comitium , and other public buildings of the Roman period are worth mentioning . Good condition is the 4.75 km long city wall , can be seen on the Lukan and Roman phases . The four large gates are Roman .

Type: Monument Reference number: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/842

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/06/2023 SpeedCore visited it 07/03/2017 VE2YWS visited it 09/21/2016 Axel-F visited it 10/20/2014 CONPER visited it

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