Today we ported at Salerno and drove south to see Paestum, an ancient Greek city in Italy. It has 3 largely intact temples that date from 600-450 BC along with the remains of the city, which are partially excavated. It has more intact structures than Athens! Approximately 62 acres of the nearly 300 acres of the original ancient city are excavated and can be walked through. The rest is under private lands. There is a museum, but it turns out that everything around here is closed on Mondays so we were unable to go into it.

temple of Neptune (Hera II)

At one end are two temples, one called the temple of Hera and the other the temple of Neptune (also known as the temple of Hera II). They don’t actually know for certain who these temples were dedicated to, so these names are a bit arbitrary. The temple of Neptune was built around 460-450 BC. It is very well preserved and apparently has unique columns as they have 24 flutes carved in them instead of 20. I didn’t count. You can actually climb up into and walk around in much of this temple.

temple of Neptune (Hera II)

Right next to this is the temple of Hera, which was built a bit earlier around 550 BC. They know this one is older based on the style of its Doric column capitals. This is considered the best-preserved Greek temple from this era anywhere in the world. In the 18th century some archaeologists misinterpreted this structure to be a Roman building and called it the Basilica, as the Roman basilicas were civic buildings. Because of this, it is still sometimes called that.

temple of Hera

At the other end of the ancient city is the temple of Athena. This was built around 500 BC and is partly Ionic and partly Doric style.

temple of Athena

The roofs of each of these would have been made of wood. The buildings also would have been covered with a layer of plaster and painted with various colors. The whole thing would have been quite a sight. Then between and around all of this was the rest of the city: homes, meeting places, amphitheater, businesses, streets, etc.

Carved post

street

Ekklesiai: for political meetings

residential area: can see the temples of Hera in the background

Heroon: partially buried temple to Zeus, from about 520 BC.

I strongly recommend visiting here. It is a bit out of the way, but it is well worth the trip. More comprehensive ruins than you will see in Athens, although those are worthwhile, also.

We also visited an ancient church across the street from the ruins, Chiesa della SS Annuziata. This church originally dates back to the end of the 5th century, although I couldn’t find any clear information about when the building is from. It looks like it probably is from around 12th century, with various restorations after that time.

Chiesa della SS Annuziata

inside the church

altar

After driving back from Paestum, we walked around Salerno. Again, for some reason everything was closed on Monday so there wasn’t really anything to go in to. It still had some pretty views, including a medieval castle overlooking the city. We then returned to the ship and relaxed there, enjoying the view of the (closed on Monday) city.

Salerno

Castle

Salerno