Athens, Greece Cityscape

By | August 26, 2021

Buildings of antiquity: Today, buildings from the 5th century BC are largely decisive. BC as well as buildings from the Hellenistic and Roman times. Significant ancient remains are preserved on the Acropolis (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and on other hills in the city: the Areopagus (seat of the Old Council) and, further to the north-west, the Pnyx, the Nymphs ‘Hill (Nymphaion), and the Muses’ Hill (Museion), especially on the agora in the northwest of the Acropolis.

The planning of the agora is perhaps related to the constitutional reform of Solon (594/593 BC). However, Athens became extensively in the 6th century BC. First expanded under the tyranny of Peisistratus and his sons; At that time, the Acropolis in particular, since the 13th century BC, was King’s seat (remains preserved) and around 1200 surrounded by a strong wall that lasted until the 5th century BC. Existed, designed as a sacred center. The oversized Olympieion (Temple of Olympian Zeus) southeast of the Acropolis was started, but after the fall of the tyranny it was not continued and only under Emperor Hadrian 131/132 AD completed (15 columns of the double Corinthian columned hall are still upright). 480/479 BC Athens was destroyed by the Persians; Themistocles left Athens in 479/478 BC. Surrounded by a city wall, of which numerous remains have been preserved. The best-researched gate system is the dipylon (double gate) built above the oldest part of the cemetery in the northwest, in front of which the state cemetery spread out; here was also the pottery quarter (Kerameikos). Pericles continued around 445 ff. Continued the construction of the “Long Walls” begun in 462/461, which connected the city of Athens with the port of Piraeus and in the south with the Phaleron.

On Kimon and Pericles, the expansion goes in the 5th century BC. BC back. The Acropolis was transformed into the sacred center of the 1st Attic League, and the Parthenon, Propylaea, Erechtheion, Niketempel and others. were built. On the agora a.o. in the north around 470/460 BC By Polygnot Painted Stoa Poikile (“Colorful Hall”), in the west around 440 BC. The Doric temple of Hephaestus (best preserved ancient temple in Greece, wrongly called Theseion) and a new Buleuterion (town hall), in the south a district of Theseus, the banquet house and the mint (around 400 BC). At the same time, the Pompeion was built on Dipylon, where the equipment for the Panathenaic procession, which led from here via the Agora to the Acropolis, was kept.

According to historyaah, the speaker Lykurg had around 330 BC In the 6th century BC, the Dionysostheater, which was carved into the southern slope of the Acropolis and has been largely made of wood since Pericles, was built in stone (rebuilt several times) and the stadium in the southeast of the city was excavated (built in marble around AD 140).

The Lysikratesdenkmal on Tripodesstrasse to the Dionysostheater and the Thrasyllosdenkmal (335/334 and 320/319 BC respectively; the former well preserved) right next to the theater as well as a large building in the academy (district of the hero Akademos, surrounds) also belong to this period of sports and school facilities; the place of activity of Plato and Aristotle).

During the Hellenistic period, Athens received numerous foundations, mainly from Pergamene rulers: Eumenes II. Soter had a portico built in the south of the Acropolis (rear arcade wall preserved); Attalos II built a pillared hall in the east of the agora (today reconstructed and set up as a museum) and had the small Attal consecration present on the acropolis; the Ptolemies built the double halls of the gymnasium in the south of the agora.

The conquest of the city by the Romans under Sulla in 86 BC. BC (1st Mithridatic War) caused severe damage to Dipylon, the Agora and the Odeion of Pericles from 445 BC. BC, a wooden building next to the Dionysus Theater. Under Augustus the odeion of Agrippa was established on the agorabuilt (giant and triton pillars obtained from a renovation around 150 AD), east of the agora the construction of a new marketplace, the “Roman Agora”, began, to which an 11 m wide, still standing gate on the west side with three entrances (»Gate of Athena«). Outside the square is the well-preserved “Tower of the Winds” from the 1st century BC. BC (named after the eight reliefs with depictions of the wind gods), which contained a water clock. 114–116 AD the tomb of the East Minor Asian prince Antiochus Philopappus von Kommagene was built in the southwest of the city on the Muses Hill (preserved as a ruin). Under Hadrian construction activity was greatly encouraged; Above all, he had a huge columned courtyard with a library built on the 2nd Imperial Forum parallel to the Roman Agora (Hadrian’s Market). The well-preserved festival gate (Hadrian’s Gate) still bears witness to the expansion of the city in the southeast (Hadrian’s City). After 160 AD, the wealthy Athenian Herodes Atticus donated a covered Roman theater (Odeon; now in use again) on the southwest slope of the Acropolis and renovated the stadium (reconstructed in 1896 for the first modern Olympic Games).

After this boom in the 2nd century, the building of the Valerian city wall (253-260) followed in the 3rd century, despite the general decline, but the city was completely destroyed during the Herul invasion in 267, only the acropolis was spared. Around 400 a large gymnasium was built on the agora (probably the seat of the academy); in the 6th century under Justinian I, the temples were converted into churches (Parthenon, Erechtheion); Nothing of the newly built early Christian churches of late antiquity remained (e.g. the Megale Panagia on Hadrian’s Market, a central building from the 5th century, renovated as a basilica in the 6th century).

Athens, Greece Cityscape