The tholos

The Tholos

 

Three large curved and decorated blocks supported by a stone column survive from the frieze of a tholos, a special kind of circular temple, which probably stood to the east of the Temple of Sulis Minerva.

 

Visitors pass beneath the tholos blocks as they descend a staircase in the displays and so they see the decoration as was intended originally – from below.

 

Temples like this are known from the eastern part of the Roman Empire and from Gaul, but this is the only one known from Roman Britain.

Image: The tholos