Capitolium of Brixia, Italy

The Capitolium of Brixia or the Temple of the Capitoline (Tempio capitolino di Brescia) Triad in Brescia was the main temple in the center of the Roman town of Brixia. It is represented at present by fragmentary ruins, but is part of an archeological site, including a Roman amphitheatre and museum in central Brescia.

The Capitolium is a Roman temple located in Brescia in Piazza del Foro, along Via dei Musei, the nucleus of ancient Roman Brixia. Together with the theater and the remains of the city forum, it is the most important complex of ruins and remains of Roman public buildings in northern Italy .

In 2011 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and is part of the serial Longobardi site in Italy: places of power (568 - 774 AD).

History:
The temple was built in 73 AD during the rule of emperor Vespasian. The prominent elevated location and the three identifiable cellae, each with their own polychrome marble floor, all help confirm that this temple would have represented the capitolium of the town, that is the temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The Capitolium replaced an earlier set of temples, a "Republican Sanctuary", consisting apparently of four discrete temples that had been erected around 75-90 BC, and refurbished during the reign of Augustus.

The temple was built on a previous republican temple and its construction is due to the Emperor's victory over General Vitellius, in the plain between Goito and Cremona. Destroyed by a fire during the barbarian incursions that plagued Europe in the fourth century AD and never rebuilt, it was buried by a landslide of the Cidneo hill during the Middle Ages. The temple was brought to light only in 1823 thanks to the support of the City of Brescia and the University, which demolished the public housing and the small park (Giardino Luzzaghi) built years ago on the ground now flattened above the building, bringing back to light the ancient center of the Roman Brixia.

The three cellae of the capitolium have been rebuilt, and the walls of the left cella are used as a lapidarium to display local epigraphs found during the 19th centuries. In front of the cellae, are the partially reconstructed remains of a portico, which was composed of Corinthian columns that supported a pediment with a dedication to the Emperor Vespasian.

The complex, and other Roman ruins are located at one end of Via dei Museii, once the original Decumanus Maximus of Brixia, which coursed some 5 meters below the present street level, and along the route of the . Broad stairs rose up to portico from the Decumanus.

Almost entirely buried by a landslide of the Cidneo Hill, the temple was rediscovered in 1823. Reconstruction was performed soon after by Rodolfo Vantini. During excavation in 1826, a splendid bronze statue of a winged Victory was found inside it, likely hidden in late antiquity to preserve it from pillage.

The construction of the building is to be attributed to Vespasiano, in 73 d.C .. His "paternity" is confirmed by the original inscription on the pediment: IMP. CAESAR.VESPASIANUS.AUGUSTUS. / PONT. MAX. TR. Potest. IIII. EMP. X. P. P. CAS. IIII / CENSOR

In 1826, moreover, in the cavity of the wall that isolates the temple from Colle Cidneo the group of Roman bronzes, including the four portraits of the late imperial era and the famous Vittoria Alata, plus other objects, all probably buried to hide it from the systematic destruction of pagan idols by Christians. The complex was partially rebuilt between 1935 and 1938 through the use of bricks, which allowed the recomposition of the Corinthian columns, part of the pronaos and the three cells behind the facade. The project should have been wider: it would have had to demolish practically all the buildings that occupied the space of the forum (except the Palazzo Martinengo and the church of San Zeno al Foro) up to the ancient basilica in Piazza Labus, digging up to original level of the land and restore or rebuild most of the columns of the arcade around the square. Therefore, link bridges would have been positioned to allow an overview of the ruins from above (the Via Musei itself would have become, in that stretch, nothing more than a bridge) with stairs that descended in more points. The project was never completely put into practice and we limited ourselves to lay bare and restructure the only column of the hole still intact, still visible today in Piazza del Foro.

Structure:
The structure of the temple is that of the classical Roman capitolium with three cells, that is prostyle, with the colonnade only in the front area and closed by a wall on the sides and back. In this case, however, the system is a little more articulated, since there is a more protruding central body flanked on both sides by two other porticoes of the same height. Behind the front of the façade exastila (ie with six columns on the main front) in Corinthian style, there are three cells separated by interspaces, each hosting an altar dedicated to three respective deities, today identified as Minerva, Giove and Giunone. The threshold of the central cell, the largest, made of Botticino marble, is valuable and well preserved.

Some structural elements that emerged from the ground were reused as building material, for example the tiles that probably decorated the ceiling of the pronaos, reused in the facade of the church of the Most Holy Body of Christ.

Located in Via Musei, in the heart of the historic center of the city of Brescia, overlooking imposing Piazza del Foro, built in later times on the basis of the original Roman forum and raised 4.5 m above the level of the ruins, placed at the height of the ancient maximum decumanus, which can now be reached via specially designed stairs.

In this cell is also the most imposing of the three podiums, placed at the center of each of the sacelli, on which is observed a stone base with two steps. The central cell and the left one are still provided with the original flooring, in marble and African breccia, decorated with beautiful mosaics, well preserved and restored, while the one in the right cell has been lost. The central cell of the temple also houses an extensive lapidary wall built in 1830 and expanded in the following decades, where many Roman stone works are preserved and exhibited including arches, honorary and sepulchral inscriptions, funerary steles, milestones and bases of monuments .

It is almost certain that there is a fourth cell, located further to the east, probably dedicated to Bergimo, a god of Celtic origin. Finally, there is a last cell, which was part of the ancient republican temple on which was built the Capitolium, located below the structure of the imperial era, dating back to the first century BC, from 2015 open to the public after the restoration of the beautiful frescoes that are still preserved inside.

The tympanum, largely rebuilt, was most probably decorated with some statues and the top (acroterio) had to be composed of a large statuary group. Of the ancient columns of the temple, only one is still present completely intact throughout its length, or the first on the left, easily recognizable because it is entirely white and not completed by bricks. This column was also the only remnant that emerged in the early nineteenth century, when the area had not yet been investigated archaeologically, so that its top was used as a table in the back garden of a small coffee arose at that point.

The temple could be admired from the large square once in front of it (the homonymous Piazza del Foro which today opens in front of the temple does not deviate much from the original dimensions), which at the time was certainly the nerve center of political and social life , feasts and markets and which was bounded by a portico, of which there remains a single Corinthian column of which we have already spoken. On the floor below it is engraved what could be a rudimentary chessboard, likely pastime of the merchants who had shop here.

The temple was accessed through a staircase that climbed directly from the maximum decumanus, divided on two or three flights, which led to the terrace surrounding the building, perhaps then enriched by two fountains. Still from the maximum decumanus one could instead go down another stairway, in line with the one that went up to the temple, thus arriving on the hole and from there to the porticoes (the decumanus was therefore positioned halfway between the hole and the temple), creating a monumental background to the square.

Theater:
It is also important to remember the large theater located on the right of the temple, with its characteristic hemicycle shape, partly occupied by the presence of Palazzo Maggi Gambara, a stately residence built in the fourteenth century on the steps. Of the structure there is not much left: there are still the lowest rows of steps, resting directly on the ground, while all those in the past supported by arches have disappeared because of the collapse of the latter.