Discover Temple of Jupiter Anxur

Last updated on October 8, 2026

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Introduction

The Temple of Jupiter Anxur stands on top of Monte Sant'Angelo above Terracina, built between the middle of the second and the middle of the first century BC and dedicated to Jupiter as the protector of Anxur. The Via Appia passed through the city below it. A larger temple to Jupiter and a smaller one to Venus Obsequens, Indulgent Venus, stood side by side.

Architecture

The Temple of Jupiter Anxur was raised on an earlier place of worship, on a terraced platform built in opus incertum, and the complex is arranged over three terraces. It is the substructures -- arch upon arch carrying the platform out over the hillside -- that give the site its profile from the coast below.

The sanctuary belongs to a recognisable family: the great Republican sanctuaries of Latium, built between the middle of the second and the middle of the first century BC in scenographic and commanding positions on massive terraced substructures. Palestrina and the Hercules sanctuary at Tivoli are the others. All of them use the new cement construction then recently worked out in Rome, dressed in architectural orders inherited from the Hellenistic tradition, and the model for the arrangement on descending terraces may be the great sanctuaries of Pergamon in Asia Minor. The temples in this family stand on high podia and dispense with the rear colonnade -- sine postico, which is useless when a building is designed to be read from the front. Terraces are commonly porticoed on three sides, and the arcades and vaults either sit alongside the colonnades or are hidden by them.

Here that produces a specific sequence. The upper terrace, the entrenched camp, is a portico round three sides of a square open to the south, walled with nine round towers. The middle level carries the great temple, 18.70 by 32.58 m, on a high podium up twelve frontal steps, with six Corinthian limestone columns across the front and four down each flank, a pronaos nearly as deep as the cella, and six stuccoed half-columns applied to each side of the cella and six at the back. Below that, the face of the foundation terrace shows twelve arcades opening into barrel-vaulted rooms linked by tall arched passages, with a plastered corridor about 3.50 m wide behind them.

And one piece of architecture is not architecture at all. The oracle on the temple's west flank is an isolated natural rock, left standing and then cased in a quadrangular opus incertum base that carries a shrine on four brick columns with travertine Ionic capitals. At the small temple, likewise, a stretch of living rock was deliberately spared by the concrete inside the cryptoporticus. The builders worked round the rock where the rock was the point.

The short history

The Middle Ages thought the Anxur sanctuary was Theodoric's palace.

Read the full historical timeline guide →

How it was built and evolved over time

The mountain was fortified before it was a sanctuary. The Ausonian settlement on the southern slopes became the Volscian town of Anxur and was finally taken by Rome at the end of the fifth century BC. Terracina became a Roman colony in 329 BC, and in 312 the new Via Appia between Rome and Capua was routed round the back of the mountain. The first terracings in polygonal masonry date from then, raising a first sanctuary probably tied to an oracular cult -- and probably without a temple at all.

Then a rebuilding, around 140 BC. A series of rooms was set against the rock upslope: the terrace now called the small temple, whose First Style stucco and painting belong to the third quarter of the second century BC. The comune's portal notes that the oracular cult here was probably already some centuries old.

Then Sulla, and the scale changes. At the start of the first century BC the whole sanctuary was monumentally rebuilt: a wall circuit and a military camp controlling the passage of the Appian Way, and a new great temple raised on a scenographic foundation terrace in opus incertum with a portico behind it. The barrier wall north of the sanctuary is probably connected to the Marius-Sulla fighting, and may answer Sulla's march on Rome in 83 BC; his victory may be what produced the building project that overturned the old sanctuary's structure.

And the technique is the news. This is the new cement construction, then recently worked out in Rome, carrying forms from the Hellenistic architectural tradition. The model for the scenographic arrangement on descending terraces may be the great sanctuaries of Pergamon in Asia Minor; the temples stand on high podia and lack the rear colonnade -- sine postico, useless when the building is meant to be seen from the front. Terracina belongs with Palestrina and the Hercules sanctuary at Tivoli in the family of great Republican sanctuaries of Latium built between the middle of the second and the middle of the first century BC.

One repair is legible. The cella was originally wider inside and was later lined with a reinforcing wall -- perhaps, the source suggests, after a fire.

Frequently asked questions

Is it actually a temple of Jupiter?

Disputed, and the comune's own portal presents the dispute as live. The traditional identification is Iuppiter Anxur -- Jupiter as a boy, the city's protector. An inscription naming Venus was found on the site, along with votive objects including glass-paste doves inscribed to Venus Obsequens, and some scholars argue for a female deity. The smaller and probably older sanctuary has recently been attributed to Feronia instead.

What is there to see, if the temple is gone?

The terrace it stood on. Twelve arcades of opus incertum, each opening into a barrel-vaulted room, with a plastered corridor behind them -- the structure that makes the monument visible from the plain. Plus the oracle rock, the camp with its nine round towers, First Style painting from the second century BC and ninth-century frescoes.

What are the hours and the price?

Every day, 9:00 to 20:00. Seven euros full, five reduced, per the Comune di Terracina's tourism portal. The Fondazione Città di Terracina manages the site.

How did the oracle work?

An isolated natural rock with interconnected cavities inside let a breath of air out to the surface, and rising sea currents are what drove it. The rock was encased in Roman concrete and topped with a small shrine on four brick columns; a pit at its foot yielded a great many lead votive offerings when it was excavated in 1894.

Why was it called Theodoric's palace?

Because after the Roman period the sanctuary was destroyed and burnt, and the medieval centuries knew the remains under that name. The hill's present name comes from the Benedictine monastery of San Michele Arcangelo that settled in the small temple area.

When was it dug?

First in 1894, by the local scholar Pio Capponi, then by Luigi Borsari in 1896. Further monastery structures, with bases for presses and basins, came to light in 1988.

How high is it?

227 m above sea level, on Monte Sant'Angelo -- the last spur of the Monti Ausoni and the only point where that chain reaches the Tyrrhenian.

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Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Wikipedia — The Temple of Jupiter Anxur was built on a previous place of worship and the complex consists of three terraces, upper, middle and lower; the upper terrace is characterized by a long corridor that borders the square on three sides and opens to the south, the middle terrace houses the main temples of worship with a base made by a succession of twelve arches in opus incertum transversely connected to each other to create the illusion of a long corridor, still well preserved today, and to the east of the cryptoporticus is an access to a small cave that probably connected with the oracular sanctuary; recently the attribution of the temple to Jupiter has been questioned due to a few dedicatory inscriptions probably to Venus Obsequens, The Anxur sanctuary uses the new cement building technique recently elaborated in Rome, with the forms of the architectural orders derived from the Hellenistic tradition; the model for the scenographic arrangement on descending terraces may refer to the great sanctuaries of the city of Pergamon in Asia Minor, while the temples rise on high podia and lack the colonnade at the rear -- sine postico, useless for the prevailing frontal view -- and the terraces are often surrounded by porticoes on three sides, with the arcades and vaults often set alongside the colonnades or hidden by them, The upper part of the Anxur sanctuary corresponded to the military zone, provided with a circuit of walls with nine circular towers which protected the sanctuary and connected it to the city's acropolis; the camp consisted of a portico on three sides of a square open towards the south, with a sentry walk and a series of interconnected cisterns behind the far arm, and at the south-west corner of the square stands a small temple in antis, with a cella preceded by two columns between the prolongations of the wall of the cella itself, On the great lower construction at Anxur stood the great temple, 18.70 by 32.58 m, with an orientation divergent from that of the terrace and the facade turned almost exactly towards the south; the building stood on a high podium reached by a frontal stairway of twelve steps which perhaps held the altar at its centre, the pronaos, nearly as deep as the cella, had six Corinthian limestone columns on the front and four on the sides, and the cella, almost square at 14.10 by 13.60 m, was decorated externally by six half-columns on the flanks and six at the back in stuccoed masonry set against the walls, with a mosaic of white tesserae edged by a simple black band inside and the podium for the statue of the deity at the far end, having been more spacious inside at first before being lined with an internal reinforcing wall, perhaps following a fire, From the terrace of the Anxur temple a stair on the east side allows the three vault-covered rooms at the lower level to be reached, which give access to the facade of the substructure base of the terrace; this, resting on a further foundation terrace and built in opus incertum, presents on its facade twelve arcades giving access to as many rooms covered by barrel vaults and linked by high arched passages in the walls between one room and the next, with doors and windows alternating at the back onto a long corridor about 3.50 m wide, itself vault-covered and faced with plaster, and behind the corridor a natural cave opens at a lower level, subsequently regularised and probably connected with the oracular sanctuary; in the highest part of the terrace towards the west a trace remains of an older substructure wall in polygonal masonry belonging to the sanctuary's most ancient phase, which consisted of two terracings at different levels later replaced by the grand Sullan substructure, Behind the Anxur temple the terrace, cut partly into the rock, was closed to the north by a portico on the same orientation as the sacred building, raised on three steps, originally provided with a colonnade perhaps Corinthian, its interior painted and serving as a resting place for pilgrims; on the western flank of the temple was the oracular sanctuary, an isolated natural rock with cavities inside connected to one another which allowed a breath of air to reach the outside, the rock cased in a quadrangular base in opus incertum supporting a shrine with four small brick columns with Ionic travertine capitals, a pit having been dug at the foot of the rock where the 1894 excavations found numerous votive offerings in lead, the oracular sanctuary being closed by a wall and accessible only from the end of the portico (October 2026).
Checked against Comune di Terracina -- Portale Turistico — The sanctuary of Terracina belongs within the great Roman sanctuaries of the Republican age in Latium, built between the middle of the 2nd and the middle of the 1st century BC in scenographic and commanding positions on imposing terraced substructures, such as the Sanctuary of Hercules at Tivoli and the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Palestrina, on the inspiration of models of eastern origin, The monumental terrace of the Tempio di Giove Anxur also held a rock where, thanks to the rising of marine currents, particular rites must have taken place, along with two small cisterns, the rock having been spared by the cement work inside the cryptoporticus (October 2026).