This content was automatically translated. View the original text.
Temple of Hercules at Cori: two thousand years on the acropolis of the Lepini Mountains
The Temple of Hercules dominates the acropolis of Cori, in the Lepini Mountains in the province of Latina. A national monument since 1898, it is one of the best-preserved examples of Doric architecture reinterpreted in the Italic tradition. It has eight travertine columns standing 7 metres tall, a frieze with triglyphs and metopes, and a pediment that is still intact.
The Magistrates’ Gate
Originally the temple was covered in polychrome stucco, and could be reached via a monumental staircase, which is now lost. It was commissioned by two local magistrates, Marcus Maglius and Lucius Turpilius, between 89 and 80 BC. Their names are still legible on the architrave above the gate.
What you can see and what is no longer there
Only the pronaos (portico) and the entrance wall remain of the temple. The bell tower visible behind it belongs to the church of San Pietro (St Peter), destroyed by the bombings of 1944. A curious detail is that the temple is off-centre relative to the terrace below — probably indicating that an older building had once been there.
An uncertain name
The people of Cori have called it Hercules since before 1600. But this attribution rests on an 18th-century inscription considered apocryphal. What is certain is that, over the centuries, the temple has attracted the interest of numerous scholars. Among them, Giovanni Battista Piranesi devoted a series of engravings to it. It is said that even Raphael came to measure and capture it in some sketches.
