ABSTRACT
A central element in the Roman urban experience was religion, and the historical development of the way in which religious architecture contributed to the urban landscape is an essential part of the spatial history of Roman urbanism. In the Roman metropolis, the spatial role of temples and sanctuaries changed with the gradual development of the city. Comparing the Republic with the imperial period highlights how podium temples from the Republican period gradually lost their spatial prominence because of the increasingly condensed nature of urban space, and the gradual increase in street level. New temples at Rome were, from the early imperial period onwards, often constructed on separated plazas and surrounded by porticus, while newly emerging cults had their meeting places in much secluded and invisible environments. As a consequence, religious architecture lost some of its dominance in the urban landscape.
