The roughly triangular plain which has its vertices in the Campidoglio, the Palatine and the Aventine and its base in the Tiber, the Forum Boarium, it had a fundamental importance from the origins of the city of Rome: the very existence of the city would in fact be inexplicable without taking into account the primordial function that this strip of land along the river has exercised. But the most intense phase of architectural and building activity coincides with the 120nd century BC when, around 15 BC, what turns out to be the oldest preserved marble temple in Rome was built in Pentelic marble. The temple is monopteral, circular in shape, with a diameter of almost 20 meters and with XNUMX Corinthian columns resting on a low podium of marble steps.
Although the term is known to us from Vitruvius, this is an architectural typology of Greek origin defined by a simple "peristasis" which encloses an empty space and supports a roof. Its architect was probably the Greek Hermodoro of Salamis and, although it was erroneously said of Vesta, it was dedicated to Hercules Victor, the patron god of traders who carried out their business right inside the Forum Boarium. The temple therefore provides us with clear confirmation of the economic power achieved by the Roman merchants who traded in the Aegean and the Mediterranean at the end of the 1140nd century BC. In the XNUMXth century, in XNUMX, it was transformed into the church of Santo Stefano delle Carrozze, and from the mid-XNUMXth century it was instead dedicated to S. Maria del Sole due to a miraculous image of the Madonna found in the Tiber.
Inside frescoes dating back to 1475 are still preserved depicting the Madonna with Child and Saints. The temple, thanks to its conversion into a church, was kept in fairly good condition until the 1809th century when it was freed from this function and, following the restorations carried out by Giuseppe Valadier during the years of the French government (14-XNUMX), it was brought back to its original condition.
Thanks to the FAI initiative in collaboration with the Special Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Rome, the opening will be guaranteed on Saturday 28 September from 10 to 19 (last access at 18.15).
