Temple of via delle Botteghe Oscure - Temple of the Nymphs

The remains of the temple, consisting of part of the podium and two columns with Corinthian capitals, came to light in 1938 during the demolitions for the enlargement of via delle Botteghe Oscure, in the area between Largo di Torre Argentina and Piazza Venezia.The sacred building was probably founded between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd century BC. and was devastated by a terrible fire, described by the historian Cassio Dione, which destroyed Campo Marzio in 80 AD, during the reign of Titus.

The emperor Domitian, who ascended the throne the following year, rebuilt several public buildings damaged by the fire and built new ones, radically transforming the urban fabric of the area. Among these, there was certainly the temple which underwent important restorations. The building, which can be reconstructed thanks to a fragment of the Forma Urbis, a marble map of the city drawn under Septimius Severus, was peripteral and octastyle, that is surrounded on all sides by columns of which eight were aligned on the front, and was accessed via a staircase. The temple was also surrounded by a four-sided portico which was probably built in the Domitian period. The brick cell wall, visible together with the base of the cult statue in the cellars of the building on Via Celsa, belongs to a restoration from the time of Domitian.

A coin of Valentinian III found in the archaeological site has made it possible to date the abandonment of the temple starting from 425 AD. This was followed by a phase of transformation between the sixth and seventh centuries AD, which saw the area occupied by other structures not yet identified.

Photo credits: Courtesy of Sovrintendenza Capitolina