Tavole Palatine

Province of Matera, Italy

The Tavole Palatine ('Palatine Tables') are the remains of a hexastyle peripteral Greek temple of Magna Graecia the 6th century BC, dedicated to the goddess Hera and the god Apollo. The temple, located near the Bradano river in the south of Italy, was part of a countryside sanctuary and remains of the wall of the temenos and of a very ancient altar are visible.

History

The remains are located in the archaeological area of Metapontum, on the last of the Givoni, ancient sandbanks near the right bank of the river Bradano, built over the remains of a neolithic village on the prehistoric road from Siris-Heraclea, about three kilometres from the ancient city of Metapontum.

The temple, restored in 1961, was initially attributed to the cult of the goddess Athena, but a fragment of a vase found in the course of the 1926 archaeological excavations turned out to be a votive dedicated to the goddess Hera, showing that she was the patron of the sanctuary.

Description

The temple was composed of a central naos, preceded by a pronaos and with an adyton at the rear. Fifteen columns with twenty flutes and Doric capitals survive. Of these fifteen columns, ten are on the north side and five on the southern side. Originally there were thirty-two columns, since the temple had a peristasis of twelve columns on each long side and six on each short side. The temple has decayed significantly because it was built with local limestone (so-called mazzarro). In the fifth century BC, the temple had a tiled roof with multi-coloured decoration in the Ionic tradition, with leonine protomes and gargoyles.

Numerous remains of terracotta decoration, statuettes and ceramics, along with smaller column fragments were found near the temple during the 1926 excavations and are now kept at the Museo archeologico nazionale di Metaponto.

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Details

Founded: 6th century BCE
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Italy

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.4/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

maila pomida (15 months ago)
Entrance Gratis/free. The site is easy to locate,along the highway. Though it is a bit neglected(with hope that it will get more attention and reevaluation) finding a thousands of years history like this is amazing and mindblowing. The site is not jam packed with people you'll every inch of it. Toilette not available.
dimitra papakiritsi (15 months ago)
Small temple of the 6th century outside of the ancient city. Pleasent place.
johan A (16 months ago)
Nice little stop on the way! Free parking no entrance fee.
Tilman Benecke (3 years ago)
One of many abandoned architectural landmarks in southern Italy There is not much to see here, there is no toilet, there is actually nothing, except for this unimpressive ruin from a time which I have relatively little to do with. Supposedly, I heard, there is always nice weather.
pts pts (6 years ago)
Stopped here 19 years ago when the highway was a medicre 2 lane road. Dirt track led to the temple. Good news, nothing has changed! The same blocks are still here, and the site doesn't look any worse than back then. you can visit the temple easily, park, 2 minutes on foot.
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