About 50 km from Cava de 'Tirreni, you can visit the archaeological park of Paestum. Its birth can be traced back to the mid-7th century BC like an ancient city of Magna Graecia called by the founders Poseidonia in honor of Poseidon.
The Doric order temples miraculously come down to us are considered unique examples of Magna Graecia architecture, built in the two sanctuary areas dedicated respectively to Hera and Athena.
Not to be missed
The Temple of Hera I The so-called "Basilica" is a peripteral temple (9 x 18 columns), dedicated to Hera from 550 BC about.
The Temple of Hera II The so-called "Temple of Neptune" was actually also dedicated to Hera and was built in sandstone around 460 BC, it is the largest of the temples of Paestum.
The Temple of Ceres or Athena (500 BC) was previously known as the Temple of Ceres, and is the smallest of the Templar buildings, with Doric columns in the peristyle and Ionic in the cell.
The public areas are also not to be missed:
The Agora, the political heart of the city that extended for about 10 hectares
The Italic Temple
The pool
The Amphitheater
II Bouleuterion
Finally, a visit to the Museum cannot be missed, which contains an important collection of artifacts found in the areas surrounding the site, first of all the funerary objects coming from the Greek and Lucanian necropolis, in particular there are many vases, weapons and slabs frescoed tombstones.
The most famous come from the so-called Tomb of the Diver (480-470 BC), a unique example of Greek painting of the classical age and of Magna Graecia, with a symbolic representation interpreted as the transition from life to the realm of the dead.
Also noteworthy is the series of frescoed tombs dating back to the Lucan period in the city.
The museum also exhibits the metopal cycles from the Heraion del Sele.
