Antiquity

Greek colonists built temples in southern Italy and Sicily, and Rome made the vault, the dome and concrete the architecture of an empire.

The Temple of Hera at Paestum and the Temple of Concordia at Agrigento are among the best-preserved Greek temples in the world. The Etruscans, who dominated central Italy before Rome, built temples of wood and clay on high podiums.

In Rome the Colosseum was inaugurated in the year 80, the Pantheon was built under Hadrian and the Baths of Caracalla in the 210s. The Arch of Constantine of 315 is one of the last great monuments before the emperor founded a new capital at Constantinople.

• Second Temple of Hera, Paestum
• Temple of Concordia
• Colosseum
• Trajan’s Column
• Pantheon
• Baths of Caracalla
• Arch of Constantine