Temple of Augustus, Pula, Croatia

The Temple of Augustus is a well-preserved Roman temple in the city of Pula. Dedicated to the first Roman emperor, Augustus, it was probably built during the emperor's lifetime at some point between 27 BC and his death in AD 14. It was built on a podium with a tetrastyle prostyle porch of Corinthian columns and measures about 8 by 17.3 m, and 14 m high. The richly decorated frieze is similar to that of a somewhat larger and more recent temple, the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, France. These two temples are considered the two best complete Roman monuments outside Italy.

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User Reviews

Peter Carey (28 days ago)
Peaceful relaxing square in front of the Temple is ideal for chilling out.wonderful food and drinks available too.

Anwen Brown (35 days ago)
Beautiful monument set in a lovely square - ideal for a cool drink & a bit of people watching

Jordan Quinn (41 days ago)
My wife and I both loved the Temple of Augustus. We're both history fanatics, so a two-thousand year old structure like this was really a cool thing to behold. We paid the 10 Kuna per person fee to get inside and have a look around at some of the artifacts and left over relics from the Roman eras of Pula's past. Bottom line: if you're a history fan, absolutely take a few minutes to check this place out. The museum inside of the temple is very small (as you can see from outside the temple isn't enormous in size) but well worth the less than two dollars it cost!

Chien Lao (2 months ago)
What a great find! Beautiful architecture! Looks great on a day when the sky is overcast :)

Gustavo Molitor Porcides (3 months ago)
In a really good shape, considering it's age. Very beautiful, in a very nice place. There's a small museum into it. Small, but totally worth visiting if you are into ancient statues. There's a small souvenirs shop inside it. Stuff isn't expensive. A really nice 10 minutes experience.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Alexxx1979

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The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is one of the main sights of St. Petersburg. The church was built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and was dedicated in his memory. Construction began in 1883 under Alexander III, as a memorial to his father, Alexander II. Work progressed slowly and was finally completed during the reign of Nicholas II in 1907. Funding was provided by the Imperial family with the support of many private donors.

Architecturally, the Cathedral differs from St. Petersburg's other structures. The city's architecture is predominantly Baroque and Neoclassical, but the Savior on Blood harks back to medieval Russian architecture in the spirit of romantic nationalism. It intentionally resembles the 17th-century Yaroslavl churches and the celebrated St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

The Church contains over 7500 square metres of mosaics — according to its restorers, more than any other church in the world. The interior was designed by some of the most celebrated Russian artists of the day — including Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Nesterov and Mikhail Vrubel — but the church's chief architect, Alfred Alexandrovich Parland, was relatively little-known (born in St. Petersburg in 1842 in a Baltic-German Lutheran family). Perhaps not surprisingly, the Church's construction ran well over budget, having been estimated at 3.6 million roubles but ending up costing over 4.6 million. The walls and ceilings inside the Church are completely covered in intricately detailed mosaics — the main pictures being biblical scenes or figures — but with very fine patterned borders setting off each picture.

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