Temple of Apollo, Bassae
The Temple of Apollo Epikourios was discovered on accident when J. Bocher, a French architect, was in the area in 1765. Due to its location he immediately knew which temple he was looking at but he was unable to continue his search after he was murdered by bandits on his second visit to the area (Dinsmoor, 1933, p. 204). It was later rediscovered by Haller von Hallerstein and Charles R. Cockerell, leaders of an international society of antiquarians, in 1811 who decided to go to Bassae after a successful exaction in another site. Frederick A. Cooper states that the temple is located in a secluded part of the Arcadian mountains and is about four and a half miles above the ancient city of Phigalia (Cooper, 1968, p. 103).
No one knows for certain when the site was created but certain features of the temple such as its elongated proportions places it at around some time before 450 BC (Cooper, 1968, p. 104-105). Another source states that Pausanias, an ancient Greek traveler, reports that the temple was built around the time of the plague that occurred in Athens which was around 430-427 BC (Dinsmoor, 1933, p. 204). Dinsmoor argued in his research that the temple had two periods of constructions which would explain its unique features that makes it seem as if it was from different time periods (Cooper, 1968, p. 104-105). The temple is made of grey Arcadian limestone expect for the frieze which was made out of marble. The Greeks may have used this as a “shrine of special sanctity” (Swartwout, 1918, p. 472). As of today the site is covered under a tent to protect it from further damages. It is currently under the care of the Committee for the Conservation of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios of the Greek Ministry of Culture.
Bibliography:
Cooper, Frederick A. "The Temple of Apollo at Bassae: New Observations on Its Plan and Orientation." American Journal of Archaeology 72, no. 2 (April 1968): 103-11. doi:10.2307/502832.
Dinsmoor, William Bell. "The Temple of Apollo at Bassae." Metropolitan Museum Studies 4, no. 2 (March 1933): 204-27. doi:10.2307/1522802.
Swartwout, Egerton. "The Classic Orders of Architecture." The Art World 3, no. 6 (1918): 471-73. doi:10.2307/25588376.
