Temple of Venus and Roma - Roma, Italy
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denben
N 41° 53.457 E 012° 29.383
33T E 291742 N 4640715
The Temple of Venus and Roma is thought to have been the largest temple in Ancient Rome. Located between the eastern edge of the Forum Romanum and the Colosseum, it was dedicated to the goddesses Venus Felix and Roma Aeterna.
Waymark Code: WM10YRJ
Location: Lazio, Italy
Date Posted: 07/13/2019
Views: 5
The Temple of Venus and Roma was inaugurated by Emperor Hadrian in 121 A.D. on the site where once stand the massive Colossus of Nero. According to some sources, it probably was Hadrian’s himself who designed the structure of the temple: a double cell set back-to-back in a single structure and with a typical Greek style, featuring a low stepped podium surrounded by columns.
The part of the temple facing the Colosseum was the one dedicated to the worship of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, but also of victory and desire. Venus, the ancestor of the Roman people, was also central to many religious celebrations and was associated to what we may define today as leisure activities. The temple dedicated to the goddess Rome or Roma in Italian faced the Roman Forum. Rome was a more “serious” goddess, a personification of the city of Rome and of the Roman state. Thus, the temple dedicated to her faced the Roman Forum, the political and economic center of Ancient Rome.
The temple suffered greatly from the destruction of the Middle Ages: the marbles were recovered or transformed into lime kilns. The terrace remains, part of the granite columns of the peristyle that have been raised and the coffered apse that formed the bottom of the cella. The Temple has now been reopened to the public after an extensive restoration programme that lasted 26 years. Access to the temple is included in tickets for the Colosseum, the Forum and the Palatine Hill.
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