Large shrine dedicated to Apollo god of imperial Rome discovered in Siena area

During an excavation campaign, a large shrine dedicated to the god Apollo that would date back to imperial Rome was discovered in San Casciano dei Bagni, in the Siena area. The shrine is located near a hot spring. Archaeologists were investigating Roman-era thermal structures, and stratigraphic excavation revealed a sacred enclosure with a splendid basement and an imperial-era inscription that begins with these words “Apollini sacrum pro salute....”

"This is a momentous discovery for San Casciano dei Bagni," commented Superintendent Andrea Muzzi. “We finally have the certainty that in this sacred valley a great sanctuary dedicated to Apollo surrounded the hottest springs.”

As early as the mid-sixteenth century, inscriptions dedicated to Asclepius/Esculapius, Hygieia and Apollo were known in the vicinity of the Great Bath, celebrating the properties of the hot springs. Now there is certainty of a real shrine dedicated to the deity, even dating back some two thousand years.

"Also linked to the exceptional epigraph found are votive offerings,“ said Jacopo Tabolli, archaeological officer of the Siena Superintendency and coordinator of the project’s scientific committee, ”such as splendid bronze and lead ears that allude to the god’s healing powers. And after all, lead is sacred before Apollo to the Etruscan Suri, and from the material that emerges we can imagine that worship at the hot springs even predates the Romans and sinks into Etruscan times. A history that archaeology will be able to write with the next excavation campaigns."

Large shrine dedicated to Apollo god of imperial Rome discovered in Siena area

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