The aim of this paper is to offer an in-depth exploration of so-called
Gallo-Roman temples or “gallery-temples”, better known in scholarship as
fanum, and of their presence in North-eastern Italy. This definition designates, as is well known, a structure with a central base-plan with a raised
cell, which rises up like a turret above the sloping roof of the colonnade
surrounding it. Despite its name, however, this typology of cultic space
does not appear to have been strongly rooted in the pre-Roman culture
of the Celtic territories; indeed, it seems to have become more widespread
during the more active phases of the process of Romanisation of the Gallic
provinces (as well as in Germania, Raetia, Pannonia, Britannia and Noricum) and develops more fully in the Imperial age, whereas in North-eastern Italy there is earlier evidence too
