HERAION

It is here, 8 km south of Pythagorion, that we find the great ancient sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Hera. According to the legend, the wife of Zeus and goddess of the women and the fertility, untiring jealous in front of the unbearable antics of her husband the god of the gods, would have been born here, near the mouth of the river Imvrassos.

The first temple of the sanctuary dates back to the VIIIth century BC: it sheltered a wooden statue(xoano) of Hera and was the very first Greek temple to be 100 feet long, an innovation followed by others later. The second temple (7th century B.C.) also innovated by erecting a double row of columns on its façade. But it is especially the following temple which remained in the annals: of colossal dimension, it inaugurated the Ionian order in ancient architecture. The monumental whole was supported by approximately 100 marble columns. To this one was added later another gigantic temple, surrounded by a peristyle of 155 columns of a height of approximately 20 meters each. Over the centuries, the sanctuary of Hera took on a major importance throughout the Greek and Roman world, with offerings arriving from everywhere. The sanctuary was connected to the city by a way lined with statues, the Sacred Way, where we found the giant kouros today exposed in the archaeological museum of Vathi. These very numerous statues contributed to the fame of the sculptors of Samos beyond the borders of the island. The site, of major architectural and mythological importance, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.