User:Martinolau/Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia

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The Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia is a sacred complex dedicated to the goddess Fortuna of the city of Praeneste (today Palestrina, Rome). It is the "maximum complex of late-republican architecture of ancient Italy".

File:Santuario-Palestrina, 13 Aprile 2019.jpg
Sanctuary covered by medieval buildings

历史[edit]

The sanctuary was built at the end of the 2nd century BC The dating of the complex, traditionally considered to be of the Sillan age, was called into question by the first editors of the complex (F. Fasolo, G. Gullini, The sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia in Palestrina, I-II, Rome 1953), who attributed it rather to middle of the 2nd century BC, and was therefore reported on epigraphic bases at the end of the same century.

The findings, however, attest to the existence of the cult already from the IV-III century BC

It was probably built thanks to associated groups of citizens, eager to assert themselves after having enriched themselves with the flows of money and labor coming from the East thanks to wars and considerable commercial traffic. In all likelihood it was a class devoted to Roman imperialism, but excluded from political life: it was no coincidence that Preneste was the last outpost in Italy to be normalized in social war and anti-Silla war. The sanctuary was famous throughout the Roman world for the cult of Fortuna Primigenia or "first-born" of the sons of Jupiter, but also Primordial and therefore Mother and simultaneously daughter of Jupiter. The cult was associated with the oracle that occurred through the extraction of the sortes, the fortunes. The faithful and devotees from all over the world asked for answers to their needs from the divinity. They did not directly access the fates, engraved on tablets in ancient characters, which were instead extracted by a child. He symbolized Iupiter Puer (Jupiter Child) highly revered by the mothers of Preneste. During the Empire to the title Iupiter Puer was compared to that of Iupiter Arcanus, that is (supernatural) keeper of the "ark". The ark was the olive wood container, the miraculous tree that stood on the ground on which the sanctuary was built. The ark then made with the wood of the sacred tree guarded the "fates" that gave the responses of the oracle.

His remains, which had been incorporated into the medieval town over time, were brought to light after the bombing of the city center in 1944.


The archaeological site and museum, property of the MiBAC, since December 2014 is managed by the Polo Museale del Lazio.

The archaeological complex has always interested architects and artists of all times. Several reconstructive hypotheses of the sanctuary were proposed by architects and scholars such as Andrea Palladio, Pietro da Cortona, Domenico Castelli, Luigi Canina, Heinz Kähler and Fausto Zevi.

The structure of stairway and the grandness of the Sanctuary have inspired the architectural composition of numerous buildings. These include the Vatican Belvedere (1504) designed by Bramante, villa Sacchetti del Pigneto (1635) by Pietro da Cortona, the project for the imperial palace of Schönbrunn (1690) by Fischer von Erlach, the Vittoriano (1884-1911) by Giuseppe Sacconi, the project for the Pocono Art Center (1972) by Louis Kahn, the Mississauga City Hall Complex (1982-6) by Jones and Kirkland Architects as well as several works by architects Francesco Venezia, James Stirling and Robert Venturi.

One reconstructive hypothese of the sanctuary

[[Category:Ancient Roman architecture]] [[Category:Temples in Rome]]