Tempio di Claudio

The temple, dedicated to the deified emperor Claude, had been build by his wife Agrippina after his death in 54 AD. It was raised on the west side of the Celio but at present there are no remains of this and whatever is known about it, is thanks to a fragment of the great marble map, the "Forma Urbis". The temple (prostyle, hexastyle and with its front towards north) was build over a rectangular monumental base of which there are many remains of the powerful walling, particularly the one on the east side all along the actual Via Claudia. The work of Agrippina was interrupted and partially destroyed by her son Nerone, who had built on the east side of the artificial stalls a monumental nymphet constituted by a high wall in bricks and tiles with a series of semicircular niches, in a bigger central room the niches on its side were rectangular. When Nerone died (68 AD), the emperor Vespasiano had the temple of Claude reconstructed using Agrippina and Nerone previous works. During early Middle Ages, a convent, connected to the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, settled in the temple. From the phase of Agrippina, some ashlar travertine blocks on which rests the bell-tower of the church of SS Giovanni e Paolo, are nowadays visible.