Capitoline Temple, Brescia, Lombardy, Italy, Europe
The Capitolium or Capitoline Temple is a Roman temple located in Brescia, Piazza del Foro, along Via dei Musei, the core of the ancient Roman Brixia. Along with the theater and the remains of the forum is the most important city of ruins and Roman remains in Lombardy. The building is due to Vespasian, between 73 and 74. His fatherhood is confirmed by the inscription on the pediment original reported: IMP. CAESAR VESPASIANUS AUGUSTUS / PONT. MAX. TR. POTEST. IIII. EMP. X. P. P. CAS. IIII / CENSOR. The temple was built over a former Republican temple and its construction is due to the Emperor's victory in the general Vitellius, in the plain between Goito and Cremona. Destroyed by fire during the barbarian invasions that plagued Europe in the fourth century AD and was never rebuilt, was buried by a landslide of Cidneo hill during the Middle Ages. The temple was unearthed only in 1823 with the support of the Municipality of Brescia and the University, who demolished the houses and the small park (Garden Luzzaghi) made years earlier on the ground now paved over the building, bringing to light the ancient center of Roman Brixia. In 1826, moreover, in the cavity of the wall that isolates the temple from the Hill Cidneo were found some beautiful Roman bronzes, including four portraits of late-imperial and the famous Winged Victory, most other objects, all probably buried to hide the systematic destruction of pagan idols by Christians. The complex was partially rebuilt between 1935 and 1938 through the use of bricks, which allowed the reconstruction of the Corinthian columns of the pronaos and three cells back to the front, currently used as lapidary, while the upper floor is a museum of archeology. The project should have been broader: it would in fact due to demolish almost all the buildings that occupied the space of the hole (except the Palazzo Martinengo and the church of San Zeno in the Forum) to the old church in Piazza Labus, dig until ' original ground level and restore or rebuild most of the columns of the portico around the square. Were therefore placed the connecting bridges to allow an overview of the ruins from above (the same Via Musei would become, in that part, nothing more than a bridge) with the stairs that went down in several places. The project was never fully implemented and there merely to expose and restructure the only column in the hole still intact, still visible in Piazza del Foro. Some structural elements that came out of the ground were reused as building materials, such as cement blocks, probably decorated the ceiling of the pronaos, re-used in the facade of the church of the Most Holy Body of Christ.