LOCATIONS
About the Temple of Augustus
The Temple of Augustus, originally dedicated to the goddess Roma and Emperor Augustus, was erected, along with another temple of the same type and dimensions, on the plateau on the northwestern side of the Forum. The rear of the second, eastern temple is visible on the back wall of the City Hall. During their construction, an older temple built in the first years of the Roman colony of Pola was removed, whose foundations remain next to the Temple of Augustus and beneath the City Hall, now marked by a different color of stone paving.
The Temple of Augustus is 13.17 m high, 8.5 m wide, and 17.65 m long. It consists of a larger enclosed cella (sanctuary) and a smaller pronaos (vestibule) enclosed by six Corinthian columns, four of which are on the front side. The side walls of the cella extend into the pronaos, where they end in fluted half-columns. Above the capitals is a three-part architrave, and above it, a frieze, decorated with acanthus tendrils, fruits, and birds.
The roof and two pediments of the temple are framed by a cornice with consoles and coffered fields. The triangular pediments with a round medallion in the center were originally relief-decorated. The architrave on the front side bears the inscription: ROMAE ET AVGUSTO CAESARI DIVI FILIO PATRI PATRIAE. Based on the official imperial title, it is known that the temple was built and dedicated between 2 BC and 14 AD.
The walls were originally built of large, regularly cut limestone blocks, but they suffered many damages throughout the centuries due to numerous repurposings and fires of the building.
After the prohibition of paganism at the end of the 4th century, the temple was converted into a church. Between the 11th and 13th centuries, the temple was connected by doors to the second floor of a palace, erected alongside its eastern wall. In a fire at the beginning of the 17th century, the roof burned down and the entrance wall that separated the enclosed part of the temple from the vestibule collapsed. The western wall made of crushed limestone was created during the restoration of the fire-damaged temple in the 18th century. The vestibule was walled up so that the building could serve as a warehouse, then the city archive, and its interior was divided into three floors. On the outside, a grain storage and a buttress were added. The temple was damaged by a bomb in 1945, and during restoration in the following years, its original form was restored.
Today, the temple houses an exhibition of ancient sculpture.
