Pseudoperipteral

The Maison Carrée at Nîmes, a hexastyle pseudoperipteral Roman temple.

In classical architecture, a pseudoperipteral temple is one with free standing columns in the front (colonnaded portico) whereas the columns along the sides are engaged in the peripheral walls of the naos or cella. The form is found in Greek temples, especially in the Hellenistic period, but in Roman temples a pseudoperipteral form became usual, where there were columns behind the portico at all. Typically there is a portico in front with free-standing columns, and engaged columns along the other three sides of the walls.

The temple of Olympian Zeus at Agrigento was a famous Greek example of this style where also the facade was presenting itself with engaged columns.

A pseudoperipteral building with a portico at each end is called amphiprostyle. Examples of this style include the small Temple of Athena Nike and Temple of Venus and Roma.

Pseudoperipteral buildings appear similar to peripteral buildings with free-standing columns surrounding the cella as a peristyle.

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Schematic plans of ancient Greek temples.

• Pseudoperipteral, Merriam-Webster
• Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

External links

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pseudo-peripteral". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.