LAGINA
Lagina, the sacred ground of goddess Hekate, is located near Turgut. Lagina was the first archeological site excavated by Turkish archeologists during the Ottoman Empire. The digs were led by Osman Hamdi Bey, a well-known Turkish archeologist and painter of the 19th century. He was also the founder of Istanbul Archaeological Museums and the Fine Arts Academy. After his research and digs at Lagina, Osman Hamdi Bey transferred all of the temple’s friezes to the İstanbul archeological museum. In Turgut town, One can see the house where Osman Hamdi Bey stayed during his work at Lagina’s sacred ground.
Visitors approaching the Lagina first encounter an impressive monumental entry with semicircular steps. The monumental entrance also has important inscriptions giving the names of priests and priestesses who participated in the key-carrying ceremony during the various festivals organized for Goddess Hekate; the temple’s key was carried by a priestess from Lagina to Stratonikea and brought back.
The plan of the Hekate sacred ground is very unusual. After monumental entry, visitors turn left and walk through a smaller gate, taking their seats on the northern stoa’s steps to watch the ceremonies and sacrifices in Hekate’s name. Another inscription on the monumental gate gives the name of the generous Emperor Augustus, who financially helped the sacred shrine of Hekate. The goddess temple is located in the middle of the square and has an exciting and unusual plan. The temple has six short and 11 columns on the long sides, having a pseudo-dipterous plan and squarish form. The architect designed the temple to put two rows of columns, but he omitted the inner row leaving a vast space between the outer row of columns and temple walls. As we understand from its name, he built a false dipteral plan. Another exciting feature of the Hekate shrine is the surprisingly big altar of the temple, which explains the performance of many sacrifices and offerings to Goddess Hekate at the altar, and it was at the center of primary attention. One can see the remains of the small church built near the altar and the cracks and damage created by strong earthquakes. The coins discovered at the Hekate Temple show that the temple was active from the 4th century BC and continued to the 4th century AD. Many statute bases at the sanctuary indicate that people worshiped some other divinities at the sanctuary. There were also statues of the donators who gave some generous donations.
Lagina sanctuary was connected to Stratonikea through a sacred road lined with tombs. The sacred road was mainly destroyed because of coal mining work and activities.