Maison Carrée: Distant context view from the east side

It was built ca. 19-16 BCE by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, who was also the original patron of the Pantheon in Rome. The Maison Carrée is a perfect example of Vitruvian architecture in its most classical mode. Raised on a 2.85 m high podium, the temple dominated the forum of the Roman city, forming a rectangle almost twice as long as it is wide, measuring 26.42 m by 13.54 m. The façade is dominated by a deep portico or pronaos almost a third of the building’s length. It is a pseudoperipteral hexastyle design with six Corinthian columns under the Pediment at either end, and twenty engaged columns embedded along the walls of the cella. A large door (6.87 m high by 3.27 m wide) leads to the surprisingly small and windowless interior, where the shrine was originally housed. This is now used to house occasional art exhibitions. No ancient decoration remains inside the cella.