Temple of Hercules

In 1834 the Antiquities and Fine Arts Commission of Palermo undertook the first restoration works on the Temple of Hercules, also known as the Temple of Heracles.

The discovery of a headless statue piqued the commission’s interest in the site to such an extent that they appointed the provincial architect Saverio Bentivegna to work alongside the local delegates from Girgenti. Bentivegna’s reports provide an image of a temple that was “completely ruined”,  so much so that at first he claimed he was incapable of producing a cost estimate for its restoration. As we can glean from the notes of the Girgenti Prefect, the way these “venerable ruins lie on the ground” was due to “the effects of the earthquake” and because it had been “raised to the ground” by the Carthaginians. As it turns out, only one of the eight columns that lay on the ground had survived these calamities. He beseeched the Commission to rebuild the eight majestic columns of the temple “certain that it would be for the benefit of the area and of Italy” [Complesso archivistico: Prefettura di Agrigento, Intendenza e atti della Prefettura di Girgenti 1827-1887 b. 486 4]. But it took until 1923 and funding from Sir Alexander Hardcastle for the restoration to take place, enabling us to admire the columns as we see them today.