Temple of Apollo Epicurius
High in the mountains of Arcadia stands a Doric temple that is unusual in several ways. It is long and narrow, faces north and has a door in its long side. Inside stood the earliest known Corinthian column, and today the temple is protected by a large tent.
The temple was dedicated to Apollo Epicurius, Apollo the Helper, by the people of the nearby town of Phigalia. According to the traveller Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century AD, they were thanking the god for help against a plague, and the temple was designed by Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon. The dating is debated, but most evidence suggests the temple was built in the second half of the 5th century BC. It was built of a local grey limestone, while some details and sculptures were made of marble. The site, some 1,100 metres above sea level, made the work laborious.
Outside the temple is Doric, with six columns on the short sides and fifteen on the long sides, so longer than usual. It also faces north rather than east, perhaps because of the terrain or an older sanctuary. In the cella there is a side door in the eastern long wall, which may have let the morning light fall on the cult image. Along the walls stood Ionic half-columns on short spur walls, and at the far end a free-standing column with a Corinthian capital, the oldest we know of. Inside ran a marble frieze showing battles between Greeks and Amazons and between Lapiths and centaurs.
The temple was forgotten in Europe until a French architect found it in 1765. In 1812 a group of English and German travellers removed the frieze, which has been in the British Museum in London since 1815. The Corinthian capital is lost and known only from drawings. The temple was the first site in Greece to become a World Heritage Site, in 1986. Since 1987 it has stood under a tent to protect it from weather and frost while restoration continues. The combination of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian in a single building has made Bassae important for understanding the classical orders.