The temple as sanctuary and the right of asylum

The entry deals with some aspects of the history of the concept of ‘temple’. In the Western tradition, the temple coincides, at least to some extent, with the territorialisation of the sacred. It is a sacralised part of space that is qualitatively different from the political territory in which it is located: it is subject to a different normativity and can be seen as an extraterritory characterised by inviolability. This is clearly demonstrated by the right of asylum, which has usually been associated with sacred spaces, from Greek temples to Christian churches. In modern times, this reference played an important role in the shaping of some political and legal concepts, including the extraterritoriality of diplomatic premises