Three Doric temples and the Tomb of the Diver
On the plain south of Salerno, a short way from the sea, stand three of the best preserved Greek temples in the world. Paestum, the Greek Poseidonia, was founded around 600 BC by colonists from Sybaris, and was later Lucanian and then Roman. Abandoned in the Middle Ages because of malaria, it was rediscovered in the eighteenth century and fascinated Goethe and the travellers of the Grand Tour. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the Cilento.
The three Doric temples rise in golden limestone among meadows and wild roses: the Basilica, in fact a temple of Hera, the oldest, from the mid sixth century BC; the Temple of Neptune, from the fifth century BC, massive and almost intact, one of the most perfect of all Greek architecture; and the Temple of Athena, further north. The museum holds the famous Tomb of the Diver, a painted tomb of about 470 BC whose lid shows a young man diving into the water, the only example of Greek figurative painting of that period to survive.
Tip: visit at sunset, when the stone glows; also try the buffalo mozzarella of the Piana del Sele, produced in the dairies around the site.
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