Corinth Monument: Asklepieion
Collection:   Corinth
Type:   Monument
Name:   Asklepieion
Alias:   Keramidaki, Hill of Zeus
Description:   The sanctuary of Asklepios is located in what was probably considered a healthy location on the north side of the city close to a supply of fresh spring water. It incorporated hospital facilities. The temple is represented only by foundation trenches cut in the limestone bedrock. The earliest remains, perhaps of the 5th century B.C., are represented by shallow cuttings within, and to the northeast of, the later temple. The 4th century B.C. temple stood in the middle of a rectangular enclosure and can be reconstructed as a rectangular cella faced with four Doric columns accessed by a short ramp up from the east. On the north side there is a stoa and, on the north and east sides, shallow colonnades that may have been used to display the life-sized terracotta body parts found during excavation. Doors on the west side entered into the abaton, where those in hope of a cure stayed, and to a space with steps descending to a plunge bath. A staircase at the north end of the abaton descends to the Lerna Court. After the foundation of the Roman colony, the temple was refurbished by Milesius, the son of a freed slave called Glaucus.The main approach to the Lerna court was by a steep ramp down from a springhouse to the southeast of the sanctuary. The court consists of a central rectangular space surrounded by colonnades on four sides. To the east of the court there was a suite of three dining rooms beneath the abaton of the Asklepieion. Each room originally contained 7 tables set before 11 stone couches. To accommodate the couches properly, three along each wall and two either side of the door, the entrance to each room was offset towards the south. On the south side of the court are a springhouse and four long reservoirs fed by water channels leading from the south. The court fell into disuse during the Roman period and it gradually filled with earth. In the 6th and 7th centuries Α.D. the court and reservoirs were used for Christian burials. The springhouse was converted into a small chapel and, later, a church was built at the bottom of the ramp.
Site:   Asklepeion
City:   Ancient Corinth
Country:   Greece
References:   Images (1,339)
Objects (555)
Notebooks (6)