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Giove Capitolino’s temple

After the tradition Tarquinio Prisco, the V king of Rome began the construction of Giove Capitolino temple and the VII and last king of Rome Tarquinio il Superbo (the arrogant) finished it fifty years later.
	The Etruscan artists from the city of Veio made the temple decoration and after Plinio il Vecchio (the elder), the statue of Giove, inside the temple, was by Vulca, supposed to be the maker of the famous Apollo di Veio. Moreover Vulca, on the top of the temple, placed a terracotta quadriga.
The Etruscan temples’ structures were in main part wooden made, by the way they were easy to burn. That was the destiny of the first Giove temple (83 b.C.), which was rebuilt by Quinto Lutazio Catulo in solid stone. The Giove statue was lost, Apollonio made a new one of gold and  ivory (chryselephantine), a copy of wich probably is the Giove di Otricoli, nowadays in Vatican Museums.
The temple was 53 meters wide and 62 meters long. During the Christian era the temple was destroyed and plundered. What today remains of the temple are the foundations and the decorations exposed in the Capitoline Museums.

Photo 1: Recreation of the temple facade

Photo 2: Temple plan

Photo 3, 4, 5: Recreations of the temple

Photo 6: The triade Capitolina (Juno, Jove, Minerva), kept in the archaeological museum of Palestrina

Photo 7: Decorative slab of the temple, Capitoline Museums

Photo 8: Antefix, Capitoline Museums

Photo 9: Temple foundations