Temple of Vesta - the Roman temple in Tivoli, outside Rome, dating back to the I century BC Its ruins are located on the site of the acropolis of the city and facing the waterfalls of the river Aniene, which are now located in the Park Villa Gregoriana.

It is not known to whom the temple was dedicated, - Hercules, the prophetess Albunee, local hero Tiburnusu or Vesta, the patroness of the hearth of ancient Rome. Near the ruins of the temple can be seen another rectangular structure and is not reliably determined - it is often called the Temple of the Sibyl.

But you know the name of the builder of the Temple of Vesta - it was a certain Lucius Gellius, whose memory is immortalized in the inscription on the architrave. Center of the temple is a round cella (the inner part of the Greek or Roman temple), which is surrounded by 10 Corinthian columns (there were 18). Inside, there are door and two windows. Frieze of the temple is decorated with carvings and bucranium (ornament in the form of a bull's head). The temple is relatively well preserved largely due to the fact that at one time was Christianized and converted to the church of Santa Maria della Rotonda. But in the 16th century Christian annex almost completely disappeared.

In the 17-18 th centuries, the Temple of Vesta, with all its decorations were carefully plotted a few architects - Antoine Degode Giuseppe Vasi, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, etc., And later its structure served as a model for the creation of numerous landscape parks outside of Italy. For example, in imitation of the church of England can be seen in the town of Stowe and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In Northern Ireland, on the model of the Temple of Vesta was built Mussenden Temple in Downhill. In France, the temple has inspired the creation of Richard Mick Temple of Love in the Petit Trianon (a small palace on the grounds of Versailles).

Around the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, a park - it was created in the first half of the 19th century on the orders of Pope Gregory XVI, who wanted to restore the channel Aniene after the flood in 1826, the year. Since ancient times, the river makes a wide loop around the city acropolis and four waterfalls falls on the plain lying at the bottom. Today, there are only two waterfalls.