Temple of Apollo Epicurius in Bassae
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How it came to be
Bassae lies on a mountainside in Arcadia, 1,131 m above sea level. The people of Phigalia dedicated a temple here to Apollo Epicurius, the Helper, the god of healing whom they believed had saved them from plague and war. The present temple was built in the second half of the 5th century BC, and the 2nd-century traveller Pausanias names its architect as Iktinos, who designed the Parthenon.
To fit the narrow mountain ground the temple faces north and south, with a Doric colonnade of six columns on the front and fifteen on each side. Inside stood Ionic and Corinthian columns and a carved frieze running all around the cella. It is the earliest building where the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders appear together, and the oldest known Corinthian capital was found here.
The temple stayed in use until the 4th or 5th century AD and was then forgotten for almost 1,700 years. In 1812, 23 slabs of the frieze were taken away, and from 1902 the Archaeological Society of Athens excavated the site. Today the temple stands under a white protective tent. In 1986 it became the first site in Greece inscribed on the World Heritage List.
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