The Temple Of Flora

STOURTON WITH GASPER STOURHEAD GARDENS ST 73 SE (east side) 6/147 The Temple of Flora 6.1.66 GV I Temple. 1744-46 by Henry Flitcroft for Henry Hoare. Limestone ashlar and stucco, hipped slate roof. Tetrastyle Doric portico, entablature with triglyphs and bucrania, moulded pediment. Central double doors with 6 fielded panels in moulded architrave with broken pediment, Latin inscription from the Aeneid over door, large 12-pane sash either side. Side walls are blind, rendered. Rectangular interior has semi-circular niche on back wall containing a Coade stone copy of the Borghese Vase, made by Daniel Pincot c1772. Circular niches on side walls contain marble female busts. The Temple also contains an important contemporary group of altars and seats or pulvinaria, copies of those in Montfaucon's Supplement to Antiquity Explained, 1725. The Temple was one of Henry Hoare's first features in the gardens, pre-dating the lake, the mason responsible was William Privet of Chilmark. The Borghese Vase was originally in the Venetian Seat, dismantled 1790s by Colt Hoare. (K. Woodbridge, The Stourhead Landscape, 1982)

Listing NGR: ST7742334017