The Temple of Vesta is a Roman temple in Tivoli, Italy, dating to the early 1st century BC. Its ruins sit on the acropolis of the city, overlooking the falls of the Aniene that are now included in the Villa Gregoriana. History It is not known for certain to whom the temple was dedicated, whether to Hercules, the protecting god of Tibur, or to Albunea, the Tiburtine Sibyl, or to Tiburnus, the eponymous hero of the city, or to Vesta herself, whose more familiar circular peripteral Temple of Vesta is to be seen in the Roman Forum. A rectangular temple stands nearby, equally difficult to attribute, often called the Temple of the Sibyl. The name of the builder or restorer of the Temple of Vesta is Lucius Gellius, memorialized in the inscription on the architrave. The peripteral temple in a variant of the Corinthian order surrounds its circular cella, which is raised on a high brick podium clad in blocks of travertine: the cella has a door and two windows. The ambulacrum that surrounds the cella had eighteen Corinthian columns (ten remain standing). The temple's capitals have two rows of acanthus leaves, and its abacus is decorated with oversize fleurons in the form of hibiscus flowers with pronounced spiral pistils. The column flutes have flat tops. The frieze exhibits fruit swags suspended between bucrania. Above each swag is a rosette. The cornice does not have modillions. The comparatively good condition of the temple is owing to its Christianization as a church, "Santa Maria della Rotonda". The Christian accretions have already disappeared in the 16th century. Careful measured drawings of the 'Temple of Vesta" were published by Antoine Desgodetz (1682) who gave elevation and plan as well as carefully rendered details of the carved capitals and the frieze. in the following century both Giuseppe Vasi and Giovanni Battista Piranesi made etchings and engravings of the "Temple of Vesta". Imitations The "Temple of Vesta" has provided a model for numerous structures. These range from orthodox replicas in landscaped gardens to variants using only some aspects of its detailing. Perhaps the earliest example in England is the Temple of Venus at Garendon Hall, Leicestershire which dates from the 1730s. The English architect Sir John Soane visited the temple and made drawings which he used as comparative examples in his lectures. His 1805 design for a corner of the Bank of England in London