<< Our Photo Pages >> Nemi Temple of Diana - Ancient Temple in Italy in Lazio/Roma
Submitted by ivanjohnson on Saturday, 27 February 2010 Page Views: 33123
Roman, Greek and ClassicalSite Name: Nemi Temple of Diana Alternative Name: Artemisium Nemorense, Temple of Diana NemorensisCountry: Italy
NOTE: This site is 10.539 km away from the location you searched for.
Region: Lazio/Roma Type: Ancient Temple
Nearest Town: Nemi Nearest Village: Nemi
Latitude: 41.724000N Longitude: 12.710000E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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External Links:
Ancient Temple in Lazio/Roma.This is the famous Temple of Diana at Lake Nemi about 25km south-east of Rome. Its modern fame comes largely from the descriptions and analysis in both James Frasier's "Golden Bough" and in Robert Graves' "The White Goddess" (both recommended).
According to those books this temple complex is the epicentre of the Mediterranean pre-Christian matriarchal cult of Danae (Diana, or the Tuatha de Danaan) and along with Diana it is also the home of "Rex Nemorensis" the "King of the Wood" - always an escaped slave that must slay the old Rex Nemorensis in order to become the new King of the Wood. Needless to say the King of the Wood could apparently look forward to a lifetime of sleeping with one eye open.
Built on the northern shore of this lovely and spectacular volcanic lake, the complex features a very large, now somewhat overgrown, Roman era platform with tall retaining walls intact on the west sides, and on the east sides are large porticoed retaining walls of part of the Roman temple. Though there are large Roman walls, niches, columns, and partial rooms with intact mosaic floors, as well as a few intact bits of original trompe l'oeil painted wall decorations, there's not a great deal that looks so impressive, but in this case it's the fascinating and crucial history of the place that makes it so interesting. This is apparently one of the main spiritual foci of ancient pagan Europe.
But...there is some stuff that is a bit more interesting if you don't mind risking getting shot for a little trespassing onto the adjacent farmland. The Romans appear to have built their huge, largely brick, structure down slope from what appears to be an older pre-Roman structure that is uphill to the north-east of the Roman structure.
If you accidentally fail to notice the "private property - do not enter" sign and yellow police tape fence across the breach in the north-eastern Roman wall and scramble up the steep and slide-prone dirt fall you come to a large terrace where some archaeological dig is in progress and there are a number of very old carved stones and structures partially exposed that look like wells or baths etc, some covered by tarps. These structures are not indicated on plan maps I have seen. Some appear to be older than the larger Roman part down the hill. This uncharted upper area may have been part of an old temple of Diana or perhaps part of an older temple of Isis that reportedly once graced the lakeside. Only a few small parts are uncovered so far but some of the dressed-edge stonework somewhat resembled the stonework in the Temple of Diana at Cefalu, Sicily. It looks to be years away from complete excavation.
Continuing another 15 - 20m up the slope to the north you come to some sort of cloister of ruined room walls that looks to be from the Roman era again. Then another 5 - 10m uphill from that is another large overgrown terrace that has a bunch of unexcavated low ruined walls visible. This was an intriguing part for me because at the very back of this area there are the low remains of a long crescent moon-shaped semi-arc wall about 10m across nestled against the hillside.
Now let me see; Diana's symbol is the crescent moon. This up-slope off limits section of structures seem to exhibit some of the oldest stonework (except for possibly the invisible temple described below). Perchance, could this crescent wall be a moon temple? Might be a coincidence of architecture, but it's the right shape. When this off limits area is finally laid bare it will probably be fairly interesting.
Also, there is another really interesting, but invisible, ruin west of the north-western wall of the Roman platform, invisible because:
"From 1924 to 1928 excavations were undertaken under the auspices of the state by Edoardo Gatti [during which a small theatre and a bath building were uncovered]. Gatti was unable to finish uncovering the buildings (particularly the theatre) and died before he could write up the report. Lucia Morpurgo (Not. Scav. 1931) nobly tackled the difficult task of publishing a dig she had not supervised (and that had been covered up when the work was completed), so that many questions raised by the partial excavation inevitably remained unanswered. Furthermore, Gatti’s excavations in the sanctuary were overshadowed by the discoveries of the imperial ships at the bottom of the lake. These magnificent “floating palaces” were raised (1927–32) and housed in a museum built for them beside the lake. The ships were destroyed in a fire on May 31, 1944 (Ghini 1992, 3–7), possibly the result of arson by retreating German troops. New excavations, admirably conducted and swiftly published, were begun in 1989 by Ghini (Ghini 1997, 2000)."
-Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana at Aricia - by C.M.C. Green
-[Catalogue of the Cypriot, Greek, and Roman Stone Sculpture in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology - by Irene Bald Romano]
These fascinating structures were RE-BURIED! Apparently it is on a private farm and the owners allowed them to excavate it for study purposes but wanted the farmland back to make a living so the whole ruin was apparently re-buried and now it is just fields again with none of the structure visible. It is indicated however on all of the plan diagrams at the north-west end the site. It appears that it was a quite old and interesting quasi-megalithic ruin - a circular theatre or altar and pools or baths or something. Somebody should get that farmer another field somewhere so they can re-excavate this nifty structure, only now there's a house built right on top of the ruin!
The only photos I found of this now buried structure were on the placard display at the nearby Naval Museum just down the road from the temple (a spectacular 1920's modern concrete building). The position of the depicted structures was indicated on the plan diagram on that placard. I have included my poor snapshots of their buried theatre/baths photos among the photos for this page.
If you're into the Golden Bough/White Goddess/Tuatha de Danaan thing you'll be glad you visited this ruin complex. The town of Nemi perched on the cliff above the ruins is unusually beautiful and is famous for delicious tiny strawberries.
Nemi is an easy day trip from Rome and a beautiful drive (paralleling the Appian Way) to get there. I spent the night and really liked the town a lot. Because the lake is so evidently a volcanic cone the place has a mysterious primal feel and beauty that is unique even in Italy.
Note: Golden Bough from Roman mythology 'found in Italy'. See comment.
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