ROME, CIRCA 1800

The Temple of Minerva Medica was one of Rome’s most frequently visited monuments, yet the building itself is something of a mystery. Popularly deriving its name from a statue found on site depicting the goddess Minerva with a snake, the circular structure has also been variously described as a nymphaeum or bath house and a dining pavilion. In the nineteenth century the area was a wasteland of Roman ruins and the temple lay within a modern vineyard which Eustace recorded also contained ‘various subterranean vaulted apartments, some more, some less ornamented, the receptacles of the dead of various families.’ Today, the circular ruin stands between the railway tracks leading into Rome's Termini station and the present-day via Giovanni Giolotti, very close to the Porta Maggiore.