Past? Present? Future?
Palestrina - formerly Praeneste - was celebrated throughout the Roman world for its vast and opulent sanctuary dedicated to
The Goddess of Fortune - La Dea Fortuna.
We can do the basic archeology from many miles away, heading due east from the Imperial Capital. Picking out the six terraces that conducted the faithful from the lower town up through a sequence of sacred precincts.
The Antro delle Sorti - the Cavern of the Fates - was the chief focus. This natural grotto hosted the Oracle of the Goddess who discerned the future from cryptic tablets (the so-called Sorti Prenestine - Fates of Palestrina).
Palestrina remained a thriving urban center long after the abandonment of the pagan sanctuary. In the course of the Middle Ages, the formerly sacred enclosures were filled with houses, shops and churches. But the ancient past remained right below the surface, awaiting the aerial bombardments of the Second World War. A crude but effective excavation technique...
La Gelateria della Dea Fortuna -
The Ice Cream Shop of the Goddess of Fortune.
In Palestrina, the mystic past is an inescapable part of daily life. This is a land with long memories - where everything is possible and nothing is absurd.
More MYTHIC ROME?
More VANISHED PEOPLES?
PHOTOGRAPHS: Views of Palestrina
© Lyle Goldberg (appearing below, on the other side of the camera.)
Classroom lesson for the day....benefit of having your town blasted away by aerial bombers..."a crude but effective excavation technique"....he he....love this perspective!!
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