Sunday, April 19, 2020

TEMPLE OF PORTUNUS

TEMPIO DI PORTUNUS
Piazza Bocca della Verità

Built in the fourth or third century BC
Rebuilt in the second half of the second century BC with renovations in the first century BC

Mistakenly believed to be the Tempio della Fortuna Virile (Temple of Manly Fortune)

It is a temple pseudoperipteral, ionic and tetrastyle
Travertine columns, half-columns and wall of the cella in tuff of the Aniene River with bases and capitals in travertine
It was originally completely covered with stucco

It became a church in the year 872 with the name of S. Maria Egiziaca (St. Mary of Egypt), the patron saint of prostitutes, and it was granted to the Armenians

It was commonly called S. Maria ad Gradellis (S. Mary at the Steps) for the staircase that used to connect this area with the River Tiber
It was deconsecrated in 1924 and the copy of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, which was kept in it, was moved to St. Nicholas of Tolentino

MAIN ALTAR
“St. Mary of Egypt” by Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609)

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