The Temple of Minerva

While trying to map out my walking path to the Marco Polo building, I noticed a small green circle-like patch on Google Maps a few hundred feet away off my path. Green patches are usually parks, and in the density of the Roman urban landscape, small and circular usually mean monuments or something similar.

I zoomed in a little and saw the name Temple of Minerva Medica (translated as "Minerva the Doctor").

WHAT? I don't remember seeing anything like a Temple to Minerva in the distance on the walk, so I tapped the images section of Google, and the following 18th or 19th century painting caught my attention on my small phone screen:

WHAT?

I most certainly would have remembered seeing something like that, sheezus! And now I must go find the thing. I vowed to leave a few minutes earlier on one of the days and go find it before heading off to the Marco Polo. That day turned out to be the last day of the conference.

Here's an actual photo from the past I found, from before the area was built up:

I liked this photo because I took one at about the same orientation, and I wanted people to see the buildup in the century and a half since it was taken. Here's one from my day:

It was fully boarded up and off limits. It can be seen where new brick work was added to ty and fix the decahedronal nature of the structure, but when it was done I have no idea.

It turns out that it was erroneously labeled as a Temple of Minerva. It was in fact not a temple, but rather an ancient nymphaeum, a grotto or shrine dedicated to nymphs, usually water nymphs, as in it was probably the site of an ancient spring and a source of water.

It retains the name Temple of Minvera all the while not hiding from the truth. Pretty neat.