Temple of Vesta

The Temple of Vesta (Latin aedes Vestae ) was the central sanctuary of Rome in the Roman Forum. He was behind the Caesar and Dioskurentempel. In it burned the sacred fire of Vesta, which was guarded by the six Vestals. The temple is associated with the tholos type.

According to tradition, the temple was the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, back, and had the form of a round hut, which should remind you of the first Roman dwellings. In the middle of its roof there was an opening for the flue of the fire. Inside the temple, the Penates of the state were kept various items that Aeneas should have saved from Troy allegedly, including the Palladium, an old statue of the goddess Pallas Athena (Minerva ). The sacred space of the temple could be entered only by a few people, such as the Vestal Virgins or the Pontifex Maximus. Because of its sanctity, he was also a popular repository for wills and contracts. Otherwise, the temple was open to the public, only at night was prohibited men from entering the temple, presumably to safeguard the chastity of the Vestal Virgins.

In the immediate vicinity of the temple was the house of the Vestal Virgins, in which dwelt the defaulting virginity priestesses.

On March 1 of each year, the old beginning of the year, the fire was rekindled what had happened in the wood of a fruit-bearing tree with a concave mirror or by drilling. Went out the fire by itself, this was considered great misfortune for the city. Therefore, the responsible vestal from the Pontifex Maximus was severely punished.

There were offered food offerings daily, for which the simplest foods were used in clay jars. The daily cleaning could be only performs with running water, which caused wore the Vestals from the source of Egeria in jugs on their heads.

Over the history of this temple, which was particularly risk from fire as the repository of the sacred fire was six times destroyed by fire, but always rebuilt. Its present form is a reconstruction of Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus, from the year 191, however, you will depend on the form of reconstruction of 64 when the temple was also destroyed during the great fire of Rome under Nero. The temple was a marble rotunda on a platform of 15 meters in diameter with an east-facing staircase and entrance. Around the circular interior space ( cella ) was a peristyle ( pronaos ) of 20 Corinthian columns, which were offset by corresponding half-columns on the outer wall of the interior.

In its present form the temple was reconstructed in 1930 from the existing ruins. Get three columns with the corresponding sector of the inner wall and the entablature, and the badly damaged panel.

Varia

A similar temple was not dedicated to Vesta, located below the Aventinhügels on the forum Boarium, the Temple of Hercules Victor.