Paestum by moonlight with lanterns

From Dec. 21-31, 2018, the Paestum Archaeological Park is offering Paestum by Moonlight, the initiative that provides dusk visits to the Southern Sanctuary. People will walk among the temples of Paestum illuminated by natural night light and the flames of small lanterns carried by visitors, which they will collect at the entrance to the Main Gate, in front of the Temple of Neptune.

Tiziana Maffei, president of ICOM Italy, said, “The proposal of a moonlight visit experience restores the sacredness of a magical place like Paestum. The choice not to illuminate the temples from the inside may appear to be against the trend today, but it actually reveals courage and consistency not only from an environmental point of view. In this Italy crushed by light pollution, unfortunately, the wisdom of the past in using natural light to support architectural syntax has been literally overwhelmed by the desire to experience cultural sites at night. We will have to seize the initiative of the Paestum Archaeological Park to open a reflection on the role of light as a territorial museographic device in the nocturnal staging of architecture and cultural landscapes.”

Inside the Archaeological Park museum it will be possible to admire Antonio Coppola ’s painting from the years 1880-90, Paestum in the Moonlight, granted by the Vico Foundation.

Paestum Archaeological Park director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said, “The attempt of the exhibition is to evoke the charm of the site under the night sky at a time when monuments were not yet illuminated with electric light installations. In recent decades, it has become increasingly difficult to relive such an experience, so we decided to turn off the exterior lighting of the southern shrine temples to allow for ’moonlight’ visits with only lantern lighting.”

For info: www.paestum.museum

Hours: Daily at dusk from December 21 to 31, 2018. Inauguration Dec. 21 at 5 p.m.

The initiative is included in the Park entrance fee, Paestum Mia annual ticket and the Adopt-a-Block card.

Paestum by moonlight with lanterns

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