The sanctuary of Caelestis
Dates
222-235 CE
Garden Description
The sanctuary of Caelestis, installed on the north-western outskirts of the city, was built on a sizeable plot of land allocated to it by its commissioner during the reign of Severus Alexander (222-235). This sanctuary is distinguished by its semi-circular shape. Its Corinthian temple, peripteral and hexastyle, rises in the center of the courtyard on a podium reached by a staircase of eleven steps. A wide paved esplanade which spreads out in front of the temple. The complex is united by a central axis, which runs through the esplanade, to the staircase, through the entrances to the temple, whose altar was probably installed on this alignment. The remaining space of the unpaved courtyard was probably planted. This peripteral temple is reminiscent of the temple of Hephaestus on the Agora in Athens.
Plans
Bibliography
- Aounallah, S., Maurin, L., "Remarques sur la topographie rurale et urbaine du pagus et de la ciuitas de Thugga (Dougga, Tunisie)", in Hommes, cultures et paysages de l'Antiquité à la période moderne : Mélanges offerts à Jean Peyras, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2013. (worldcat)
- Golvin, J.-C., Khanoussi, M. (dir.), Dougga, études d'architecture religieuse. Les sanctuaires desVictoires de Caracalla, de « Pluton » et de Caelestis (Mémoires, 12), Bordeaux : Ausonius Éditions, 2005, pp. 99-182, fig.1, 21, 157, 171-172. (worldcat)
- Malek, A.-A., "Le jardin dans les sanctuaires du Maghreb romain, premières approches", in Du culte aux sanctuaires : l'architecture religieuse dans l'Afrique romaine et byzantine, Brouquier Reddé, V., Baratte, Fr., Rocca E. (dir.), Paris, de Boccard, coll. Orient et Méditerranée, 2018, pp. 213-230, p. 366, pl. 16. (worldcat)
Keywords
- temples (buildings)AAT:300007595
- sanctuaries (religious building spaces)AAT:300004575
- courtyards (uncovered spaces)AAT:300004095
- altars (religious fixtures)AAT:300003725