Temple of Portunus

The Temple of Portunus stands on the Piazza della Bocca della Verità in Rome’s Rione XII, beside the ancient Forum Boarium. This small rectangular temple overlooks the Tiber at a sharp bend where the river once carried cattle barges from Ostia. Built beside Rome’s oldest river port and the Pons Aemilius bridge, it was long thought to be the Temple of Fortuna Virilis after a Renaissance misreading. The temple is one of the best preserved Roman temples, dedicated to Portunus, god of keys, doors, livestock and granaries. During the Middle Ages it became a church of Santa Maria Egiziaca for the Armenian community. Its Ionic order rises on a high podium reached by a flight of steps, with four free-standing columns across the front and two deep. Half-columns line the cella walls, a form called pseudoperipteral, and the capitals show Roman variations between front and side views. Constructed of tuff and travertine under a stucco surface, it was rebuilt between 120 and 80 BC after an earlier 3rd- or 4th-century BC version. The temple’s survival owes much to its conversion into a church in 872, which preserved its structure until deconsecration in the early 20th century. Visitors see the temple’s tetrastyle portico and cella standing close to the riverbank, with the circular Temple of Hercules Victor nearby. The Ionic columns and engaged half-columns remain clearly visible, though the original stucco has worn away. From the piazza the temple’s podium and steps can be approached, and the Forum Boarium’s cattle-market setting recalls its ancient role. The site offers a quiet view of the Tiber’s bend and the Pons Aemilius remains opposite. Its classical lines have inspired copies since the 16th century, yet the original stands largely unchanged beside the modern city.