TEMPLE DE DÉMÉTER

You've arrived at a true marvel. Built 530-520 BC, the Temple of Demeter (Ναός της Δήμητρας) served as the model for the Parthenon in Athens. It was later transformed into a church and basilica. Relatively well preserved, the building underwent a major restoration project in the 2000s, which today gives it its full cachet. Next door, a small museum houses the original pediments and some of the artifacts discovered on site. Unfortunately, this museum is only open on a random basis (free admission).

The history of this extremely important archaeological site is intimately linked to that of the island. The particularly fertile Sangri valley was inhabited very early on by peasants grouped together in small settlements. As early as the ^8th century B.C., men turned to Demeter (goddess of agriculture and the harvest) and Persephone (daughter of Zeus and Demeter, goddess of the underworld, also associated with the return of vegetation in springtime) for abundant harvests. For a long time, these cults were performed on hilltops in the open air. It was only under the tyrant Lygdamis, around 530 BC, that the island's first marble temple was erected, the ruins of which still remain. Near the corner of the temple, two small pits connected by a canal are visible. These were offering pits where fruit juice or plants dedicated to the goddesses of fertility were poured. If you look at the colonnade on the south façade, you'll see that the temple is built without any straight lines: the base is convex, the columns are inclined inwards, the architraves are not straight, and all the wall blocks are inclined. This precise optical correction system gave the illusion of perfect verticality and horizontality. The Temple of Demeter was the first Greek building to use this ingenious trompe-l'œil, a technique that would be used again a century later by the architect Ictinos when building the Parthenon (447-438) in Athens.

When Christianity supplanted paganism, the temple was transformed into a church. Walls were erected between the columns to enclose the space. A doorway was also opened in the left (west) flank. During the reign of Emperor Justinian (527-565), more extensive modifications were made, transforming the building into a basilica divided into three naves by colonnades.