page_title: Temple of Mercury (Puy de Dôme)
section_title: Chronology
hierarchical_section_title: Temple of Mercury (Puy de Dôme) / The Temple / Chronology
context_page_description: The Temple of Mercury at Puy de Dôme is a Gallo-Roman trachyte temple built in the 2nd century at the summit of the dome. It replaced a 1st-century arkose temple on the same site, which was apparently too small to accommodate the many pilgrims who visited. Its remains were revealed by excavation campaigns in 1875 and at the turn of the century.
context_section_description: A first temple was built around 50 CE on the summit of Puy de Dôme. Although objects dating from prior to the Roman conquest have been discovered, no trace of a pre-Roman building has been found. As such, the site may have been the subject of only temporary visitation without permanent construction.
  The 1st-century temple was destroyed around 150 CE and part of its materials used to build the second temple, lower on the slope, at an altitude around 1,435 meters. It is this temple which we can still see the remains of today.
  Coins discovered at the site indicates that it was still in use in the 4th and 5th centuries, but the structure could have been ruined by this time, perhaps by the 3rd Century, at the same time as the neighboring agglomeration of the Ceyssat Pass from which the path leads to the place of worship.
  In the 12th century, a Romanesque church, built on the summit of the dome, was inhabited by a hermit.
caption: Temple of Mercury - access to the first terrace (prior to restoration project)
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A510", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2005:06:05 19:59:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "186", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1935", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10091", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/800", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:06:05 16:31:07", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:06:05 16:31:07", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "309/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "93/16", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2048", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1536", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1770", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "64000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "64000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}