Temple of Concord in Agrigento
Fenners - CC1.0
The Temple of Concordia is a Greek temple of the ancient city of Akragas located in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento.
The building owes its traditional name to a Latin inscription from the mid-1st century A.D. with a dedication to the "Concordia degli Agrigentini" which was erroneously related to the temple by the historian and theologian Tommaso Fazello around the middle of the 16th century.
The Doric order building dates back to around the second half of the 5th century BC. and has a base of four steps, on which rest six columns on the short sides and thirteen on the long ones. It almost entirely preserves the elements of the entablature and the two pediments on the east and west sides. Together with the Parthenon, it is considered the best preserved Doric temple in the world .
Inside, the temple is divided into an entrance hall, a cell and a rear compartment. The cell door is flanked by two pylons within which a service ladder leading to the roof is obtained. In the walls of the cell there are twelve arches that date back to the end of the 6th century AD, a period in which the building was used as a Christian church: according to tradition it was Gregory, bishop of Agrigento, who consecrated the ancient temple to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paolo after having cast out the demons Eber and Raps. The duality of the pagan demons and the dual dedication of the Christian church have led to the hypothesis that the temple could be dedicated to a couple of Greek gods, such as the Dioscuri, but these are only hypotheses. It is not known, to date, to whom the temple was dedicated .
