The majestic Doric temples, illuminated by sunlight and the long coastal strip, brushed by a sparkling sea, make Paestum a charming place to spend their holidays. The ancient town is strategically positioned a few kilometers south of the Amalfi coast and north of the Cilento Coast, from the door of the Cilento National Park.
Considered by UNESCO Heritage Site, Paestum remains, for art, nature, the flavors and the events that characterize it, one of the most beautiful cities of the Magna Grecia to visit and discover.
The town is located 43 km from Salerno and can be reached along the A3 motorway, exit at Battipaglia, national S.S. 18 (up to Capaccio Scalo), the S.S. 166 Alburni (junction of Petrale) and, finally, the S.P. 13. The nearest railway station is in Paestum, on the Rome-Reggio Calabria. Its particular geographical position, allows it to dominate the plain of temples at Paestum, offering a great panoramic view of the entire Gulf of Salerno (also formerly called Posidoniate or Sinus Paestanus). The province of Salerno is rich countries that preserve interesting natural and cultural resources.
Its territory touches the most beautiful stretches of the Tyrrhenian coast, but also the countries far from the coast will certainly give visitors a splendid panorama. The sea, the green and fascinating traditions of these places are the ideal destinations for excursions. The recall is not due only to the legend and history, archaeological sites, passionate scholars among the most outstanding problems of his remains, but the exceptional variety of its colorful scenarios by Mediterranean vegetation.
It might seem, at first glance, an exaggeration, but the natural and historical stage – Paestum archaeological, where myth and legend coexist in an indissoluble union, is not so different from the paradise of that dwells in the imagination of those who live on this extraordinary gift of nature, in its forms has the expressive power of a true work of art, whose material entity is capable of transmitting, to those who visit, explore and comment on it, living emotions, in which opposites, instead of clash , they attract, in which the relative exceeds the absolute.
They are to visit the whole archaeological area starting from the Sanctuary of Hera at the mouth of the Sele, built in the sixth century BC, one of the most famous of Magna Grecia, located on a large alluvial plain of sand, silt and earth at 1,500 meters from the mouth of the river and just 9 kilometers from Paestum, the Basilica, the largest and oldest of the three temples dating back to 550 BC built following the archaic Doric style, Temple of Ceres or Athens , located at the highest point of the city, at the northern edge of the south of Paestum divided from the Basilica and from the Temple Neptune , walls of Paestum is developed to its full length which approximates around five kilometers (4750 meters), with an average thickness of five meters and a maximum of seven , assuming the geometric shape of a pentagon or trapezoid rectangle with the tip of the shorter side facing the coast, the Amphitheatre , typically Roman building, which began as a building to house the fights between gladiators, Forum , surrounded by Doric portico, one of the oldest of the Roman rectangular holes, you follow it reaches Via Sacra (12 km long, from Greek times linked the city of Poseidonia the oldest temple Hera) that affects the sacred area of the Goddess Athena, the tomb of the Diver , is a very exceptional tomb since the decorations are all tailored to the needs of the deceased due mainly by the approach of the Lucani Greeks in the city government to the fourth century BC, which in addition to changing the local political structures, also brought changes in the aesthetic tastes, the Forum that affects the sacred area of the Goddess Athena can not miss Madonna del Granato built around the twelfth century is still a destination for many pilgrims not only from Cilento, but also by many capitals of Campania and for devotion to its superb location on the Gulf of Salerno, from which you can admire a divine landscape, the Church St. Peter the Apostle , once called the Church of the Rosary Confraternity, dates from around 1550, a time when the local history does not record significant events.
Winckelmann , which came to Paestum in 1758, before the wonders he “discovered” could not help but feel a deep amazement for what for too long had been buried by a blanket of forgetfulness. Thus he took shape his thinking:
… It is not an amazing fact that no one has written about this before? “
Source: website