The Temple of Augustus

The Temple of Augustus comprises Roman ruins and a road bridge, re-erected in the 1820s by Sir Jeffry Wyatville as an elaborate artificial ruin. The materials originated from the Roman city of Leptis Magna in Libya and were presented to the Prince Regent in 1816, initially intended for the Portico of the British Museum. The complex, approximately 225 feet long by 100 feet wide, is designed to be traversed by a carriage road passing under an archway, connecting Windsor Great Park with the grounds of Fort Belvederes.

The ruins are arranged around a carriage road bridge constructed in 1827 of stock brick in Flemish bond, with curved ends and a single horseshoe-shaped pedestrian arch. The parapet was rebuilt in 1904. Bands of stone fragments from Leptis Magna are incorporated into the bridge’s structure, with a Roman archway attached to the north. To the south, fifteen Roman columns of cipollino marble, largely with Corinthian capitals and sections of entablature, arrange in a semi-circular apse, suggesting a temple of Augustus. Approximately ten feet outside this colonnade, Wyatville built a tooled ashlar wall with a semi-circular niche, simulating an outer wall. To the north of the bridge, a series of Roman red and grey granite columns are arranged in two parallel colonnades, some with Corinthian capitals, others with plumed capitals, and others with entablature above. Some column shafts are laid on the ground to create a picturesque arrangement. A stone round-headed arch and wall with domed niches, likely added by Wyatville, are built against the road bridge. The entire composition is considered the most impressive artificial ruin created in Britain.