#pronaos

Temple of Dionysus or Liber

Salona, Dalmatia, Croatia

~1st century CE

The temple of Dionysus or Liber was Tetrastyle Corinthian pronaos temple dedicated to Dionysus/ Liber. The temple consisted of a square cella and a deep vestibule with four massive Corinthian columns.

Walls encircled the town as early as the 2nd century BCE as it was considered an important military center. At the time, the Romans were involved in a series of campaigns to conquer Dalmatia and Salona seesawed several times between local and Roman control.

Sometime between 40 BCE and 33 BCE (the exact date is uncertain) Salona became a Roman colony named Colonia Martia Ivlia Salona. Roman traders and war veterans flocked to the town and under Emperor Augustus it became the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia.

Throughout the first century CE, Salona developed rapidly. The expanded city was fortified with strong walls and towers, especially on the more vulnerable northern side. In the southeastern side, a Forum was erected and next to it a theatre that held 3500 people. A century later, an amphitheatre was built that held up to 17,000 spectactors. At its height, the population may have reached 60,000 people, making it one of the largest towns in the Roman empire.

1. Follow Nature. It is useless to search for the sun by the light of a candle.

2. First know; then act. Real knowledge exists in the triangle composed of seeing, feeling, and understanding (Study & Experience).

3. Use no vulgar processes. Use only one vessel, one fire, one instrument. The door to success lies in the unity of will, purpose,  and the proper adaptation of the means to the end. There are many roads leading to the celestial centre. He who follows the chosen path may succeed, while he who attempts to walk on many paths will be delayed.

4. Keep the fire constantly burning. If the molten metals are allowed to cool off before they are transformed into higher ones, they will become hard again, and the whole process will have to be restarted from the beginning. Use the inextinguishable lamp. Its light will not go out unless it is driven away by force.“

Andrea Palladio: Villa Chiericati, Vancimuglio in the Veneto, Northern Italy; 1550’s (built c. 1555 – 1584), completed in 1584 by Domenico Groppino after Palladio's death

The villa is square. A portico projects from its principal facade. (This was the first time a temple pronaos had been incorporated into a villa's design). The principal rooms are built upon a piano nobile above a semi-basement. The upper floor is very much of secondary importance. The design of the villa was to be the prototype for Palladio's later works at the Villa Rotonda and the Villa Malcontenta.

Work on the villa stopped after the death of Palladio's client. It was not finally completed until after it had been purchased by Ludovico Porto in 1574. In 1584 he employed the architect Domenico Groppino, who had collaborated with Palladio on other projects, to complete the villa.

There is some debate as to the extent Groppino influenced the eventual design of the building. While the portico is undoubtedly by the hand of Palladio himself, the position of the windows is at variance with the architect's own advice in I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, where he warns against placing windows near the corner of a building lest it weaken the structure (the villa does in fact reveal signs of settlement here).