Shrine of Hercules Curinus

Last updated
Shrine of Hercules Curinus
Santuario di Ercole Curino
Sulmona -Santuario di Ercole Curino- 2008 by-Raboe 154.jpg
View of the sanctuary
Italy Abruzzo location map.svg
Archaeological site icon (red).svg
Shown within Abruzzo
Location Sulmona
Region Abruzzo
Coordinates 42°05′19″N13°56′05″E / 42.088539°N 13.934617°E / 42.088539; 13.934617
TypeTemple
History
Cultures Ancient Rome

The sanctuary or Shrine of Hercules Curinus was an Italic and later Roman sanctuary, the ruins of which are located in the comune of Sulmona, in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy. [1]

Contents

The epithet of Curinus or Quirinus was also given to other deities in the Republican era, such as Jupiter Quirinus of Superaequum. The Romans linked the epithet "Quirinus" with the deified Romulus, symbol of the unity of the protohistoric communities that formed the primitive settlement of Rome (Quirinus is the origin of curia).

An expansion of the sanctuary dates to the end of the social war (89 BC), when it was enlarged passing from a structure of a local nature to a large sanctuary on terraces similar to the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia in Palestrina or the Sanctuary of Hercules Victor in Tibur, built in same period. [2]

The upper part of the sanctuary was buried by an ancient landslide towards the 2nd century AD. The attendance of the site did not stop completely, as evidenced by the addition of a church in the Christian era, close to the southern stairway.

Description

southern stairway Sulmona -Santuario di Ercole Curino- 2008 by-Raboe 148.jpg
southern stairway

The large southern stairway could have been a monumental entrance, perhaps also used as a meeting place for local assemblies, under the protection of the god "Curinus".

The two terraces of the sanctuary were built in different periods: the lower one is more recent, in opus caementicium with a grandiose podium (71 m long) which houses 14 rooms covered by barrel vaults; the upper one, presillano, was closed on three sides by a colonnaded portico (some bases remain).

The altar, unusually covered with bronze plates, and the small sacellum of the divinity were located in the centre of the upper terrace.

The most important finds of the complex come from the sacellum, such as two cult statues of Hercules, one in bronze (in the Archaeological Museum of Chieti) and one in marble, as well as a small column with 12 verses in graffiti, attributed to Ovid.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tivoli, Lazio</span> Comune in Lazio, Italy

Tivoli is a town and comune in Lazio, central Italy, 30 kilometres north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine hills. The city offers a wide view over the Roman Campagna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todi</span> Comune in Umbria, Italy

Todi is a town and comune (municipality) of the province of Perugia in central Italy. It is perched on a tall two-crested hill overlooking the east bank of the river Tiber, commanding distant views in every direction. It was founded in antiquity by the Umbri, at the border with Etruria; the family of Roman Emperor Trajan came from Todi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Province of L'Aquila</span> Province of Italy

The Province of L'Aquila is the largest, most mountainous and least densely populated province of the Abruzzo region of Central Italy. It comprises about half the landmass of Abruzzo and occupies the western part of the region. It has borders with the provinces of Teramo to the north, Pescara and Chieti to the east, Isernia to the south and Frosinone, Rome and Rieti to the west. Its capital is the city of L'Aquila.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulmona</span> Comune in Abruzzo, Italy

Sulmona is a city and comune of the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy. It is located in the Valle Peligna, a plain once occupied by a lake that disappeared in prehistoric times. In the ancient era, it was one of the most important cities of the Paeligni and is known for being the native town of the Roman poet Ovid, of whom there is a bronze statue, located on the town's main road and named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Emmanuel II Monument</span> Building in Rome, Italy

The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument, also known as Vittoriano or Altare della Patria, is a large national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honour Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, in Rome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill. The monument was realized by Giuseppe Sacconi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyrgi</span>

Pyrgi was originally an ancient Etruscan town and port in Latium, central Italy, to the north-west of Caere. Its location is now occupied by the borough of Santa Severa. It is notable for the discovery here of the gold tablets, an exceptional epigraphic document with rare texts in Phoenician and Etruscan languages, and also the exceptional terracotta pediment statues from the temple.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cansano</span> Comune in Abruzzo, Italy

Cansano is a comune in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region, Southern Italy. It is part of the Maiella National Park. Cansano is known for the archaeological discovery of the Italic and Roman town of Ocriticum, which has become an archaeological park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bovino</span> Comune in Apulia, Italy

Bovino is a comune and hill town at the eastern side of the Apennines in the province of Foggia, Apulia, southern Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magliano, Torricella Sicura</span>

Magliano is a village in the Italian region of Abruzzo. It is a frazione of the comune of Torricella Sicura, in the Province of Teramo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villa di Castello</span> 15th Century Italian villa

The Villa di Castello, near the hills bordering Florence, Tuscany, central Italy, was the country residence of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519-1574). The gardens, filled with fountains, statuary, and a grotto, became famous throughout Europe. The villa also housed some of the great art treasures of Florence, including Sandro Botticelli's Renaissance masterpieces The Birth of Venus and Primavera. The gardens of the Villa had a profound influence upon the design of the Italian Renaissance garden and the later French formal garden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montagne del Morrone</span> Mountain in Italy

The Montagne del Morrone are a mountain group in Abruzzo, central Italy, part of the Apennines. Overlooking the town of Sulmona, they are bounded by the Valle Peligna, the river Aterno and the Majella massif. They are included into the Majella National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian garden</span> Style of garden based on symmetry and ample water features

Italian garden typically refers to a style of gardens, wherever located, reflecting a number of large Italian Renaissance gardens which have survived in something like their original form. In the history of gardening, during the Renaissance, Italy had the most advanced and admired gardens in Europe, which greatly influenced other countries, especially the French formal garden and Dutch gardens and, mostly through these, gardens in Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanctuary of Oropa</span> Church in Biella, Italy

The Sanctuary of Oropa is a group of Roman Catholic buildings and structures in Oropa, frazione of the municipality of Biella, Italy. It is located at a height of 1,159 metres in a small valley of the Alpi Biellesi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocriticum</span>

Ocriticum was an Italic and Roman town, the ruins of which are located in the comune of Cansano, in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museo Archeologico Nazionale d'Abruzzo</span> Archaeology museum in Chieti

Museo Archeologico Nazionale d'Abruzzo is an archaeology museum in Chieti, Abruzzo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuragic sanctuary of Santa Vittoria</span>

The Nuragic sanctuary of Santa Vittoria is an archaeological site located in the municipality of Serri, Sardinia – Italy. The name refers to the Romanesque style church built over a place of Roman worship which rises at the westernmost tip of the site. The Santa Vittoria site was frequented starting from the first phase of the Nuragic civilization corresponding to Middle Bronze Age. Subsequently, from the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, the place became one of the most important expressions of the Nuragic civilization and today it constitutes the most important Nuragic complex so far excavated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanctuary of the Virgin of Taburnus</span>

The Sanctuary of the Virgin of Taburnus, also known as Sanctuary of Saint Mary of Mount Taburno, is a religious structure built at the end of the 15th century at the foot of Mount Taburno. It is located in the comune of Bucciano, in the province of Benevento of Southern Italy. For more than two hundred years it was used by Dominican friars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanctuary of the Madonna di Pietraquaria</span> Italian church in Avezzano

The Sanctuary of the Madonna di Pietraquaria is a church situated on Mount Salviano at about 1,000 metres ASL in the municipal territory of Avezzano, Abruzzo, Central Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riserva Naturale di Monte Salviano</span> Italian nature reserve

The Riserva Naturale di Monte Salviano or Riserva naturale guidata Monte Salviano is a nature reserve in Abruzzo, Italy, established in 1999. It lies in the territory of the comune (municipality) of Avezzano, in the Province of L'Aquila. The reserve is named after Monte Salviano, a massif that extends northwest to southwest dividing the Fucine basin from the Palentine Plains, in the Marsica sub-region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanctuary of Hercules Victor (Tivoli)</span>

The Sanctuary of Hercules Victor in Tivoli (Italy) was one of the major complexes of the Roman Republican era built on the wave of the Hellenistic cultural influence after the final Roman conquest of Greece. It was built just outside the ancient city of Tibur and is the largest of Italic sanctuaries dedicated to Hercules, and the second in the whole Mediterranean after that of Cádiz in Spain. It was built between about 120 and 82 BC and was a masterpiece of Roman engineering with many innovations. Further building was done in the Augustan period especially in the theatre area. Augustus administered justice here on numerous occasions, under the arcades of the sanctuary.

References

  1. "Il Parco archeologico del Santuario diErcole Curino" (PDF) (in Italian). Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  2. Alessandro D’Alessio, Spazio, funzioni e paesaggio nei santuari a terrazze italici di età tardo-repubblicana. Note per un approccio sistemico al linguaggio di una grande architettura https://www.academia.edu/6245510