The temple is situated at the entrance to Ortygia. It is the oldest Doric temple in Sicily (6th century BC) and is the first with peristasis, the sequence of crepidoma, columns and epistilio. The temple remained in use for all the Roman period. In the Byzantine era it became a basilica, under the Arabs a mosque, and finally under the Normans a Christian church. In the 16th century, a barrack was built on the site, followed a century later by a new church, which was demolished in 1864.