ELST
Guelders, Netherlands.
Village between
Arnhem and Nijmegen, in the Betuwe, homeland of the
Batavi. After WW II when the parish church was being
restored two temples were discovered beneath it, both of
Romano-Celtic type. Temple was a rectangle (11.6
x 8.7 m), probably entirely built of stone and originally
covered by a saddle roof. The inner walls were decorated
with painted plaster imitating marble. This temple was
built ca. A.D. 50 and may well have been the national
sanctuary of the Batavi. It was probably destroyed by
fire in the Batavian revolt of 69-70, but shortly after the
peace of 70 was rebuilt on a much larger scale.
Temple II consisted of a cella (15.9 x 12.85 m) surrounded by a colonnade and covered by a lean-to roof.
The cella stood on a podium 30.9 by 23.1 m, and 1.2 m
high. The steps up to the podium extended along the full
width of the temple front, which faced S. The inner
walls of the cella were again decorated with paint. The
columns were fluted, had Corinthian capitals and were
ca. 7 m high. This temple was the second largest of its
kind, and was used until the Germanic invasions. In the
7th c. a Christian chapel was built on the ruins by St.
Werenfried. The remains of both temples and of the
chapel are now visible beneath the church. Some of the
finds are on view there, the rest in the Ryksmuseum
Kam at Nijmegen. Remains of three other stone buildings
have been found, probably dating from the period of
Temple II; the connection of temple and buildings is not
clear.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. E. Bogaers,
De Gallo-Romeinse Tempels te Elst in de Over-Betuwe (1955)
MPI summaries in
German and English; id., “Een Romeins gebouw aan de
Dorpstraat te Elst (OB.),”
Numaga 17 (1970) 102-7
MPI.
B. H. STOLTE
