The Temple of Minerva
The Temple of Minerva was built in 1911 by the Bath Stone builders to showcase their work at Crystal Palace as part of the Festival of Empire exhibition held in 1912. It was a copy of the Roman temple found in the Roman Baths.
It was left at the exhibition site until the Festival of Empire complained to Bath Council threatening to charge them if they didn't take it away! It was eventually decided to install it in Sydney Gardens.
The earliest Greek temples had columns made from tree trunks, rather than stone. When temples started to be made from stone, they emulated some of the features evident in the wooden buildings, such as, the fluting on the column looks like the bark on a tree - more widely the dimensions are similar to a tree trunk.
It was left at the exhibition site until the Festival of Empire complained to Bath Council threatening to charge them if they didn't take it away! It was eventually decided to install it in Sydney Gardens.
The earliest Greek temples had columns made from tree trunks, rather than stone. When temples started to be made from stone, they emulated some of the features evident in the wooden buildings, such as, the fluting on the column looks like the bark on a tree - more widely the dimensions are similar to a tree trunk.