Temple of Asclepius

The temple is located on the upper terrace of the complex, overlooking the cavea of the Theatre. It is built on a stepped platform and, even though it is almost completely destroyed nowadays, the back of the ancient structure, built agains the rock using square blocks of limestone, is still visible. The temple has the same orientation of the Shrine and it belongs to the first arrangement of the area, before the construction of the Theatre. The retaining wall limited in fact the development of the cavea on the NW side. Ugolini believed that it was built in the early Hellenistic period and then remodelled during Roman times, as well as the rest of the Sanctuary, when the polychrome floor mosaic was added. 

Though Ugolini attributed it first to Dionysus and then to Aphrodite, the prominent position of this temple in the Sanctuary complex suggests that it was dedicated to Asclepius, which is confirmed by the fact that the access was easier from the theatre and the portico than from other directions. The epigraphic material supports this statement as well. For what concerns the dating of its construction, the terminus ante quem is considered the dedicatory inscription in the Theatre, which can be dated between 232 and 167 BC. The presence of the temple or of its terrace would justify the absence of the northwestern summa cavea of the Theatre. Nowadays it is believed that the temple was build at the same time of the Theatre.

Bibliography on the subject

 

  • Hansen I. L., Butrinti helenistik dhe romak. Hellenistic and Roman Butrint, London - Tirana, 2009
  • Mancini L., "Templi, thesauroi, “temples-trésors”. Note Sull’edilizia Templare Non Periptera Nei Santuari Dell’epiro Ellenistico" in Ocnus, vol. 21, 2013, pp. 75-100
  • Mancini L., "Edilizia templare nell'Epiro indigeno. Archeologia e architettura di un paesaggio sacro periferico", PhD thesis, University of Bologna, 2015
  • Martin S., "The topography of Butrint" in Hodges, Bowden and Lako, Byzantine Butrint: excavations and surveys 1994-99,  Oxford, 2004, pp. 76-103
  • Melfi M., "The Sanctuary of Asclepius" in Hansen, Roman Butrint. An assessment, Oxford, 2007, pp. 17-32
  • Melfi M., "Butrinto: da Santuario di Asclepio a centro federale", in de Marinis et al., I processi formativi ed evolutivi della città in area adriatica, Oxford, 2012, pp. 23-30
  • Ugolini L. M., Butrinto. Il mito di Enea e gli scavi, 1937