View of the Temple of Bacchus, now the church of S. Urbano, two miles distant from Rome, beyond the Porta S. Sebastiano, from Views of Rome

<p>The temple depicted in this etching was built in the 2nd century A.D. by the Greek aristocrat Herodes Atticus and originally dedicated to the fertility goddess Ceres. During the 9th century, it was converted into a Christian church to honor Saint Urban, a 3rd-century pope. By the time Giovanni Battista Piranesi drew it, the temple had withstood various centuries of abandonment before being restored in 1634. In the print, part of an enclosing wall is visible on the side of the temple. This wall has since disappeared. The church is now the property of the Roman government and was reopened for worship in 2005.</p>