The Country of Churches.
It is no doubt that Italy is the country of churches. In the city of Rome alone, for the past seventeen centuries, over nine hundred were erected.
Before the advent of Christianity however, over the years various cults that today are referred to as "pagans", in different regions of Italy, left majestic traces of their presence.
In southern Italy, for example, the massive presence of Greek temples can be regarded as the highest expression of the so-called Hellenism, which allowed Doric architecture to develop over a large geographic area that covers the so-called Magna Grecia, which included Sicily and 'Southern Italy.
Unlike Christian churches, the Doric temple, with its impressive and typical colonnade, consists of a structure that opens to an outer space, letting the people interact without any barrier with the gods in whose honor it was built.
The oldest examples of this structure are the Doric temple of Apollo in Syracuse and the three temples of Paestum in Campania, built between 540 and 460 a. C. and dedicated to Hera, Neptune and Ceres.
However the larger temples , can be seen today in Sicily, Agrigento and Selinunte, in what is considered the largest archaeological park in Europe.
Gerry.
