The Temple of Apollo Epikoureios is also known as the Temple of Apollo at Bassai (bassai means gourd) and the Temple of Apollo Phigaleia (because Phigaleia was the closest city). This temple has 3 things that make it special: it is in one of the most remote/isolated places in Greece; the architect was Iktinos (same as the Parthenon); it has many peculiarities.
The fact that it has many peculiarities could be in part because it was so isolated. This area was notorious in ancient times for being different from the rest of the Hellenic world. There was also plenty of room here to experiment with style, because we are in the middle of nowhere.
This temple follows the Greek pattern of building a new temple on an existing site every 100 years, so there are several older temples below this one. This one was built in 426 BC but its construction was stopped due to war and it was probably finished in 401 BC. It is aligned north to south, which is bizarre because most Greek temples were aligned east to west. It is a very long Doric peristyle hexastyle temple with 15 columns on the long side. This is strange because Greek temples followed the rule of having 2n + 1 columns on the long side (if this were to follow the rule it would have 2 x 6 + 1=13 columns on the long side). Even though it was built in the classical period, it looks archaic because it is so long (they made them long because they wanted to go big, but couldn’t make them wider because they didn’t know how to bridge the gap). The most interesting thing about this temple was that they connected the columns to the walls.
When we visited this temple, we were the only people there, so the man who worked there allowed us to walk inside the temple. He also talked about the building of the temple and was obviously very knowledgeable. This was a really cool experience and showed me that sometimes the temples “off the beaten path” (as Thanos would say) are more worth going to, than the super famous ones.
The fact that it has many peculiarities could be in part because it was so isolated. This area was notorious in ancient times for being different from the rest of the Hellenic world. There was also plenty of room here to experiment with style, because we are in the middle of nowhere.
This temple follows the Greek pattern of building a new temple on an existing site every 100 years, so there are several older temples below this one. This one was built in 426 BC but its construction was stopped due to war and it was probably finished in 401 BC. It is aligned north to south, which is bizarre because most Greek temples were aligned east to west. It is a very long Doric peristyle hexastyle temple with 15 columns on the long side. This is strange because Greek temples followed the rule of having 2n + 1 columns on the long side (if this were to follow the rule it would have 2 x 6 + 1=13 columns on the long side). Even though it was built in the classical period, it looks archaic because it is so long (they made them long because they wanted to go big, but couldn’t make them wider because they didn’t know how to bridge the gap). The most interesting thing about this temple was that they connected the columns to the walls.
When we visited this temple, we were the only people there, so the man who worked there allowed us to walk inside the temple. He also talked about the building of the temple and was obviously very knowledgeable. This was a really cool experience and showed me that sometimes the temples “off the beaten path” (as Thanos would say) are more worth going to, than the super famous ones.
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