London Mithraeum
The present-day location of the temple foundations
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 Shown within the City of London
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| Location | Reassembled at Temple Court, Queen Victoria Street, EC4 |
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| Coordinates | 51°30′45.6″N 00°05′30″W / 51.512667°N 0.09167°WCoordinates: 51°30′45.6″N 00°05′30″W / 51.512667°N 0.09167°W |
| Type | Sanctuary |
| History | |
| Periods | Roman Imperial |
The London Mithraeum, also known as the Temple of Mithras, Walbrook, is a Roman mithraeum that was discovered in Walbrook, a street in the City of London, during a building's construction in 1954. The entire site was relocated to permit continued construction and this temple of the mystery god Mithras became perhaps the most famous 20th-century Roman discovery in London. The reassembled foundations can be seen from the street at Temple Court, Queen Victoria Street, London EC4.
The site was excavated by W. F. Grimes, director of the Museum of London, in 1954. The temple, initially hoped to have been an early Christian church, was built in the mid-3rd century and dedicated to Mithras or perhaps jointly to several deities popular among Roman soldiers. Then it was rededicated, probably to Bacchus, in the early fourth century. Found within the temple, where they had been carefully buried at the time of its rededication, were finely detailed third-century white marble likenesses of Minerva, Mercury the guide of the souls of the dead, and the syncretic gods Mithras and Serapis, imported from Italy. There were several coarser locally-made clay figurines of Venus, combing her hair. The artefacts recovered were put on display in the Museum of London.
Among the sculptures the archaeologists found was a head of Mithras himself, recognizable by his Phrygian cap. The base of the head is tapered to fit a torso, which was not preserved.
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Wikipedia