Corinthian columns soar above a foreground of tumbled ashlar blocks in this atmospheric steel-engraving reproduction of the Temple of Augustus at Pola — one of the best-preserved Roman temples in all of Europe, dedicated to Rome and Augustus between 2 BCE and 14 CE. The engraver has peopled the scene with turbaned and cloaked figures typical of early-19th-century Dalmatian travel illustration, while the harbor with its masts peeks through the left colonnade, anchoring the ruin in a living port city. At the time this publisher's plate was made, the temple still abutted a medieval building on its flank, visible at right — a palimpsest of two thousand years of habitation. F. W. Schrinner of Pola issued this companion piece to their Porta Aurea card in 1909, when Pola served as the imperial Austrian navy's main Adriatic base, making these cards prized souvenirs for officers and visitors alike.