Roman Forum Temples in Pula - Religious and Public Use

Abstract

The Roman temples at the North-West side of the Pula Forum had a different destiny in the course of historic events and with regard to their functions. The first large temple from Rome’s republican era, a temple dedicated to Augustus and Rome and the so-called Temple of Diana were built to the East and West of the central temple, respectively. The Augustus’ Temple was converted into a Christian church St. Mary at a very early stage. The St. Marcus’ Chapel was attached to the Diana’s east side temple. In the 18thcentury, the Roman temple-church was converted into Venetian grain storage, and in 1805 it became a Lapidarium, a repository for Roman monuments. Today it also serves as a space for museum exhibitions. The eastern forum temple, the Temple of Diana, partly constructed on the remains of the central temple’s fundament walls, had a long and variable functional history. At the end of the 13thcentury, the city’s oldest Gothic palace was built within the temple complex. In later reconstructions of the town hall only the shorter back wall (Cella) bearing Roman architectural features and floral decorations was preserved. The front side facing the forum was transformed into an interesting eclectic Renaissance and Baroque facade with a loggia. Above the loggia, the spolia of a siren and a horseman were inserted in the older structure of the Gothic palace. Thanks to the continuing functional change of the Capitoline buildings throughout the centuries, Pula today still has an integral architectural complex consisting of two forum temples.