Paestum (ancient Poseidonia, Greek colony founded approximately 600 BC by settlers from Sybaris in Magna Graecia) occupies a flat plain between the Sele River and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the southern Campania province of Salerno. 100 km south of Naples, in what was the northernmost extension of the Greek world on the Italian mainland. The city was one of the wealthiest Greek cities of the Western Mediterranean during the fifth century BC. Its three Doric temples, built between 550 and 450 BC, are the best-preserved Greek temples anywhere outside Greece itself, better preserved than the temples of Athens in some structural respects (the Concordia temple at Agrigento is more complete, but Paestum's group has three temples in visible proximity, producing an ensemble effect that individual sites cannot).
The specific quality of Paestum that distinguishes it from every other Italian archaeological site: the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Paestum holds the metopes from the Heraion at the Sele River (the votive sanctuary 8 km north of the city, with sculptural friezes of extraordinary early Greek quality) and the Tomb of the Diver, a fifth-century BC stone tomb painted on all five slabs with scenes of a symposium, musicians, and the central image of a young man diving from a platform into water. The Tomb of the Diver is the only surviving example of Greek figurative painting in the classical tradition on stone, the only work that shows what Greek painting looked like at the period when Polygnotos and Zeuxis (known only from descriptions) were producing their masterworks. Nothing else like it exists anywhere in the Mediterranean world.
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The Three Temples
Temple of Hera I (Basilica): c. 550 BC
The oldest of the three temples, the "Basilica" (the early nineteenth-century misidentification of the building as a civic basilica rather than a temple, the error comes from the unusual nine-column front, which doesn't match the standard even-numbered Greek temple fronts and confused early archaeologists). The 9×18 column arrangement produces the specific forest of columns visible from any direction. The entasis (the slight convex bulge of each column shaft that corrects the optical illusion of concavity in straight-sided columns) is visible with attention. The dedication to Hera (Roman Juno) confirmed by votive deposits and the dedicatory inscription found in excavations.
Temple of Hera II (Neptune): c. 460 BC
The best-preserved of the three and the most architecturally accomplished. 6×14 columns, with the full entablature including the triglyphs and metopes of the frieze course visible, the three internal colonnades partially intact, and the specific color of the travertine stone at different light conditions (cream-white at noon, gold at sunset, almost pink at dawn) that changes the temple's character through the day. The popular name "Temple of Neptune" (Poseidon) is a nineteenth-century misidentification. The dedication was probably to Hera or possibly to Zeus.
Temple of Ceres (Athena): c. 500 BC
The northernmost and smallest of the three temples, at the north end of the ancient agora, dedicated to Athena (the "Ceres" misidentification, like "Neptune" above, is nineteenth-century). The specific feature: this temple was converted to a Christian church in the early medieval period, as indicated by Christian burials found in the cella. The tombs of three martyrs documented in medieval sources were identified here.
Q&A: Paestum
How do I get to Paestum from Naples or the Amalfi Coast?
By train: Naples to Paestum station (approximately 1.5 hours, with change at Battipaglia or Agropoli. The station is adjacent to the archaeological site). By car: from Naples approximately 100 km, 1.5 hours via the A3 Autostrada del Sole. From Positano/Amalfi: approximately 75 km by the coastal road via Salerno, 2 hours. Paestum is the natural conclusion of a Cilento coast drive from the Amalfi area, the road south from Salerno through Agropoli along the coast reaches Paestum before turning inland. Open daily 9am-7pm. Museum and temples on separate but adjacent tickets. Combined ticket approximately €12.
What Nobody Tells You About Paestum
The best time to photograph the Paestum temples is approximately 30 minutes before sunset, the temples face west-southwest, and the late afternoon sun hits the travertine at an angle that turns each column into a golden pillar against the darkening sky. The buffalo mozzarella produced in the Paestum plain (the Piana del Sele buffalo farms are immediately adjacent to the archaeological zone) is some of the finest in Italy. The caseifici visible from the road sell fresh mozzarella consumed within hours of production. Buying mozzarella at a Piana del Sele caseificio and eating it on the steps of the archaeological park at sunset is one of the most specifically rewarding combinations of Italian archaeology and Italian food available.
