Some months ago, when we published a brief article about Rome’s lovely little Temple of Portunus, we became aware that there are readers out there who are utterly and completely dedicated to this architectural gem. Thus, when a bit of recent web-surfing led us to a series of photos documenting how the temple and its position in the city have changed over time – as well as others depicting photos of the newly restored and conserved medieval frescoes inside – we were inspired to share the images with you.
As our February article discussed, the Temple of Portunus (once called the Temple of Fortuna Virilis) is currently being cleaned and restored. But, as the images here will show, it’s not the first time that this temple has been subjected to a bit of tidying up. For most of its post-antique life, the building was encased in the dense urban fabric that grew up around sturdy ancient monuments in the Middle Ages. It was liberated from these structures only in the early 20th century.
One can see just how cramped and crowded was the area round the temple in the print made by Piranesi in 1758 (above, left) in which one sees the Temple (really, at the time, a church as it was consecrated to the Virgin Mary c. 872 AD) with its left side disappearing into the wall of an abutting and later building. And the relationship between the two buildings is even clearer in the adjacent photo (above, right) taken in 1860.
Like so many ancient ruins, the Temple of Portunus was “liberated” under the reign of Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. The process by which the abutting buildings were demolished is seen in the photos above, taken in 1924. While one of Mussolini’s aims was certainly that of showcasing such ancient artifacts as this first century BC temple, in this part of town his urban demolition was meant to fulfill another goal as well – that of creating a broad street that would lead from Rome’s historic center towards the sea – a road today known as Via Petroselli.
Mussolini’s “liberation” of the temple led to the discovery of early Christian frescoes inside the structure. Dating in the eighth or ninth century AD, the paintings show images from the life of the Virgin Mary as recounted by apocryphal texts. Though these frescoes have been known for some 90 years, they’re only now being cleaned and restored as part of the greater conservation and consolidation effort at the temple.
This recent conservation work allows us to see these frescoes clearly for the first time and they’re quite stunning. Above, is an image of Saint John the Baptist. Below, left, an image of soldiers, and below, right, a fragment of a fresco depicting the Virgin Mary.
For more on the Temple of Portunus, click here.
