TEMPLE OF HERCULES
Then AND Now
I’ve had this old photograph stuck to my ‘fridge with magnets for well over a decade. I just liked the way it looked. The back is stamped ‘35 which makes me think it’s 1935. Right before the horrors of WWII.
They think this is the oldest marble building still standing in Rome. The Tempio di Ercole Vincitore (Temple of Hercules the Victor) 143BCE, the marble columns somehow they know were transported from Greece.
I don’t think there is an older building in Rome still standing. Surely there are lots of crumbled pillars half standing or laying on their sides and they may predate this. They think in Rome anyway this may be the oldest structure still pretty much intact, though frustratingly the rooftop is not original and the glass is obviously not an old thing.
Nevertheless the Temple of Hercules is very 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 old, 143-132 BC, with the marble pillars imported from Greece. One look at it and you can tell something is not quite right about that rooftop. It seems squished on or screwed on too tight, like someone pulling your hat down around your ears. They think the original roof was a dome in shape which goes along with other structures in that period around this part of the world.
The Bocca della Verità is across the street now. There are a few theories as to what it was for, one being that it could have been a floor drain for the Temple of Hercules supposing the original roof structure had an oculus for light and therefore rain would need a drain. Likely we will never know but as consolation we can remember that Audrey Hepburn stood near it in 1953 for Roman Holiday.
