If you’re thinking of spending a few days’ holiday in the Cilento, I’d suggest not devoting them only to beaches and relaxation. I know, the crystal-clear sea of Campania will make you want to stay in the water for days on end, but this land has plenty more to offer, including the beautiful archaeological park of Paestum.
If you’re passionate about archaeology, or simply enjoy strolling and rediscovering the past of our beautiful Italy, at Paestum you’ll find a marvellous sight. Here three ancient temples are preserved, surrounded by an entire Roman city that will remind you of Pompeii or the ruins of Ostia Antica.
But there’s more!
Yes, because in the archaeological park of Paestum you won’t find only the remains of the ancient Greek temples, but also traces of a far older age. Already in prehistory hunters and farmers lived here, and even weapons made of chipped stone have been found.
Just think that in the archaeological museum of Paestum there’s a whole section devoted precisely to prehistoric finds and to the “Gaudo” culture, named after the necropolis discovered by chance by American troops in 1944.
So, do you want to know a little more?
Let’s go!
1 – The history of Paestum
The city of Paestum lies, or rather lay, about 40 km south of Salerno, along the coast. Today it’s an archaeological site of remarkable importance, recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, though it remains less crowded than the nearby ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
As you’ll surely have gathered, the city has very ancient origins.
Setting prehistory aside, it was originally called Poseidonia and was founded around 600 BC by Greek colonists from Sybaris.
Remember a little history?
Very briefly, this area was part of Magna Graecia and was the theatre of numerous wars. Paestum was first conquered by the Lucanians and finally by the Romans in 273 BC, who turned it into a flourishing colony.
Just think that the city was so important that it was superbly fortified.
The Greeks had already built imposing walls around the town, later enlarged and reinforced both by the Lucanians and the Romans. The whole circuit is almost 5 km long, with towers and four gates. Truly remarkable for a town of this size.
But if the city was so important, why was it abandoned?
The gradual abandonment of Paestum began already in Roman times and ended in the Middle Ages. The reason was not a war or a natural disaster, but the slow silting up of the area into marshland.
The abandonment of Paestum
A small river runs nearby which, because of human building work and the silting of the port, could no longer flow properly into the sea. The area slowly but inexorably became a marsh, so much so that the inhabitants of Paestum tried more than once to save their city by building canals and raising the streets and even the houses.
Sadly they only slowed the process down!
Little by little the whole population moved to the highest part of the city, where the so-called Temple of Ceres stands, until abandoning it completely around the 9th century in favour of the nearby hills.
You won’t believe it, but over the centuries even the memory of Paestum was lost: it took almost a thousand years for it to be rediscovered.
Want to know how?
Just like the ancient remains of the Villa of Tiberius in Sperlonga, Paestum too came back to light thanks to road works. Its rediscovery dates to the 18th century, when a new road commissioned by Charles of Bourbon brought these temples back to the attention of European travellers; the Roman amphitheatre, however, is still today cut literally in two by the modern State Road 18, built in 1829.
So what is there to see at Paestum today?
Let me tell you right away.
2 – The Temple of Hera (the Basilica)
When you think of the archaeological park of Paestum, its magnificent temples immediately come to mind, and for good reason. I assure you that seeing them in person has a completely different effect than looking at photographs!
These places of worship date to the 6th–5th century BC and were built when the Greeks inhabited the coasts of southern Italy, the so-called Magna Graecia. One important feature is that all the temples of Paestum are in the Doric style: you can tell from the simple, undecorated capitals and from the powerful forms of the whole structure.
Among the three masterpieces, the oldest is the one dedicated to Hera, wife of Zeus, built around 560–520 BC and long called by scholars the “Basilica”.
How do we know it’s the oldest?
The answer is simple.
It’s the only one of the three temples with a row of columns down the centre. They served to bear the weight of the roof, but this technique later disappeared thanks to new architectural solutions.
3 – The Temple of Athena
The Temple of Athena is the smallest of the three temples of Paestum, but it has great charm, both for its extraordinary workmanship and because it was converted into a church. In the Middle Ages the structure was reworked and still today, along the outer wall, it preserves three Christian tombs.
The temple was for years attributed to the goddess Ceres but, thanks to the discovery of numerous terracotta statuettes dedicated to Athena, it is now tending to be attributed to the goddess of wisdom. It was built around 500 BC.
Despite its modest size, the Temple of Athena at Paestum was built following an innovative system of proportions that makes it the most harmonious of the three.
Want a curious fact?
In the cella at the back of the temple stood a large statue of the goddess. During ceremonies, held on the stone altars outside, the doors of the enclosure where the statue was kept were opened so that she could “attend” the rite.
4 – The mystery of the Temple of Poseidon
The Temple of Poseidon at Paestum is the largest in the archaeological park and also the best preserved. Its magnificent columns, about 9 metres high, have a feature not everyone notices: they are fluted to lighten the structure and make it soar. For the same reason it rests on a three-step base that raises the place of worship above the ground.
Walking inside, you’ll easily realise where the god’s statue was kept, surrounded by an enclosure. A row of inner columns divides the temple into three parts. The roof is gone because it was made of wood, but the pediments (the great “triangles” that supported it) remain intact.
The sheer mass of the stones, laid one on top of another without mortar, having resisted earthquakes and disasters for two and a half millennia, is impressive!
The Temple of Neptune at Paestum, however, holds an unsolved mystery: it’s still not clear who it was really dedicated to. Built around the middle of the 5th century BC (~460 BC), scholars today often refer to it as the “second Temple of Hera” (Hera II), but the attribution remains uncertain.
The ancient sources don’t help us, the statues of the gods have not survived, and the finds of votive statuettes leave room for doubt. The latter may suggest Hera, protector of the city, or her husband Zeus; others have proposed Apollo, god of the arts.
So why do we call it the temple of the sea god?
The largest of the temples of Paestum is called the Temple of Poseidon precisely because the ancient name of the city was Poseidonia. The attribution was proposed in the 18th century, when the appeal of these structures was rediscovered: it was thought that, given the city’s name, the sea god might be worshipped in the largest temple. There is, however, no decisive proof for any of the hypotheses.
5 – The Tomb of the Diver and the remains of the Lucanian civilisation
We don’t know exactly when the Lucanians, Italic peoples from the mountainous hinterland, conquered Poseidonia. We do know, however, that they called it Paistom and that they respected the polis layout founded by the Greeks. They even worshipped the same gods, and the tomb of the heroic founder, the heroon, continued to be honoured with offerings.
In short, after the first conquest of Paestum the two communities merged, culturally and artistically. As you’ll see from the beautiful Greek and Lucanian tombs, the decorative motifs of the two civilisations aren’t always distinguishable.
The most famous work of this period is the celebrated Tomb of the Diver, discovered in 1968 and dated to 480–470 BC, now kept in the archaeological museum of Paestum. It’s hugely important not only for its artistic quality — it’s among the very few Greek paintings of the classical age to have reached us with human figures — but also because it bears witness to the new ideas about the afterlife that were spreading.
The Greeks imagined the other world as a dark and gloomy place. Hades was by no means a Paradise, and tombs often depicted women tearing their hair, laments, funeral scenes alongside terrible monsters.
And then?
Towards the 5th century, a series of new doctrines linked to Orphism slowly changed the way death was seen, beginning to interpret it as a rite of passage, a liberation of the soul from the body.
That’s precisely why, in the Tomb of the Diver, you’ll find a young man literally “diving” into the world of the dead with a smile on his face. Around him there are no more sad scenes, but a joyful, painless banquet.
6 – The Roman remains at Paestum
When the Romans conquered Paestum, they too respected the Greek layout, the temples and the ancient structures. As I said, they even rebuilt the city walls, reaching almost 5 km in length, with four gates and numerous towers.
Despite the centuries, they’re still imposing!
Did you know there are many Roman remains?
The remains of the Roman city of Paestum are clearly visible and recognisable: the forum, the amphitheatre, the swimming pool, the various houses and the paved streets. With the arrival of Christianity an early-Christian basilica was even built, and probably the temples too were converted to the new cult.
In the 1700s, when interest in archaeology and ancient civilisations arose, the learned scholars of the day travelled to Pompeii and Paestum to study their structures. These temples were then believed to be among the oldest buildings outside Egypt, and soon became famous stops on the Grand Tour.
7 – The archaeological museum of Paestum
In antiquity Paestum was much closer to the sea than it is today, and the river that flowed there made it unhealthy, contributing to its abandonment. In the museum everything is explained, starting from the 18th-century rediscovery, with the splendid views made by Piranesi (yes, the same one as the Villa of the Priory of Malta).
The part of the museum I liked best?
Definitely the metopes of the Heraion at the mouth of the river Sele, with the Labours of Hercules, passages from the Trojan War and other mythological scenes. The richly decorated tombs and the grave goods are fascinating, but I also found an incredible vase depicting the birth of Venus that left me astonished! If you love this kind of collection, don’t miss the National Archaeological Museum of Naples either, not far away.
There’s also another detail that will amaze you.
Inside the archaeological museum of Paestum you’ll find a beautiful 3D reconstruction of the temples, showing you how they were decorated: you’ll discover that classical architecture was terribly “kitsch”.
Even though there were no sculptural decorations, neither in the pediments nor in the metopes of the temples, don’t think they were as bare as we see them today: they were covered with white and coloured stucco.
If you look closely you can still notice traces of red and blue colouring, and there were perhaps also plant motifs filling the empty spaces. Even the statues were fully painted, so as to seem real. The effect must have been truly vivid, almost kitsch, we’d say today!
To make the most of both temples and museum, I recommend a tour with an archaeologist and tickets included: it’s the best way to really understand what you’re looking at.
8 – When to go to Paestum and how to get there
In my opinion the best time to visit the archaeological park of Paestum is summer. I visited it during my week’s holiday in the Cilento and, despite the high season, there were very few people among the ancient ruins.
The park is probably busier during term time, because schools often organise trips to this fantastic place (or so I hope).
The one thing I’d recommend is not to visit it on a bad rainy day: there’s no shelter and the ground becomes rough and muddy (remember the marsh story?).
But how do you get there?
To get to Paestum I recommend the A2 (formerly A3) Salerno–Reggio Calabria motorway, exiting at Battipaglia if you come from the north or Eboli if you arrive from the south; then take the SS18 state road and follow the signs to the park. To reach Paestum from Salerno you can also take the SP175 provincial road and enjoy the splendid view along the coast. By train, the Paestum station is on the Salerno–Paestum–Sapri line.
Practical information
Where: via Magna Grecia 917, Capaccio Paestum (SA). Hours: the park is open every day from 8.30 am to 7.30 pm (last entry to the area at 6.30 pm, to the museum at 7 pm; in summer). Tickets: the full ticket costs €10 (reduced €2 for EU visitors aged 18–25), is valid for 3 days and includes both the archaeological area and the museum of Paestum, plus the archaeological area of Velia. Entry is free for under-18s and on the first Sunday of the month. Always check the latest hours and prices on the official website of the Park.
And you, which of these temples would you like to see first?
