Paestum: Greek Temples
Paestum: Greek Temples features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Salerno. Give it roughly ~180 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type ruins
- Suggested visit ~180 min
- Salerno Salerno guide
About Paestum: Greek Temples
A UNESCO World Heritage Site 40km south of Salerno, containing three of the best-preserved ancient Greek temples in the world, better preserved than anything in Athens itself, built by Greek colonists between 600 and 450 BC in what they called Poseidonia.
Paestum (ancient name: Poseidonia) is one of the most remarkable archaeological sites in the world, a city founded by Greek colonists from Sybaris around 600 BC in what is now the Cilento plain south of Salerno, which was abandoned in the medieval period and then gradually forgotten until it was rediscovered in the 18th century. The result of this abandonment and rediscovery is that three of its major temples are extraordinarily well preserved, standing to their full original height with their columns and much of their entablature intact. The Temple of Hera I (the Basilica, c.550 BC), the Temple of Hera II (also called the Temple of Neptune or Poseidon, c.460 BC), and the Temple of Ceres/Athena (c.500 BC) represent the finest surviving examples of Doric temple architecture anywhere in the world. The associated National Archaeological Museum of Paestum contains important finds from the site including the famous painted metopes and the unique collection of tomb paintings (Tomb of the Diver, c.480 BC).
Did you know? Paestum was "rediscovered" by European scholars in the 1740s, when the road through the Cilento plain was being improved and travellers began reporting extraordinary ancient ruins in the swampy lowland. The discovery caused a sensation in the European educated world, Paestum became one of the essential stops on the Grand Tour, and the temples had a profound influence on the neoclassical architectural revival of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
How long is a visit to Paestum: Greek Temples?
Set aside roughly ~180 min for Paestum: Greek Temples. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Paestum: Greek Temples worth your time?
Paestum: Greek Temples is among the 17 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Salerno, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Salerno
Hear the story of Paestum: Greek Temples
Preview the Salerno tour free in the Gingerguide app.