Ετικέτα: ελληνικοί αρχαιολογικοί χώροι

Sites of central Athens/ the Roman Agora:

Ruins of the Roman Agora, the Tower of the Winds (aren’t I hilarious?), A view to the Agora from Athena Archegetis’ Gate, a part of the Agoranomion, and the public latrines (this is so educating)…

Sites of central Athens/ The Library of Hadrian:

A view of Hadrian’s Library from the Monastiraki metro station.

For this series about monuments in central Athens, I will post limited commentary on this round. But they will be reblogged with added commentary that will include information about their recent history.

The archaeological site of Acropolis/ Propylaia and the temple of Athena Nike:

The monumental Propylaia admired by modern visitors were part of the great Periklean building program. They were erected in 437-432 BC, after the completion of the Parthenon, by architect Mnesikles. The original building plan was particularly daring both in architectural and artistic terms, but was never completed.
The north wing of the Propylaia is
described by Pausanias (1, 22, 6) as the Pinakotheke, an art gallery
with paintings by famous artists, such as Polygnotos and Aglaophon.

The temple of Athena Nike stands at the southeast edge of the sacred rock atop a bastion, which in Mycenaean times protected the entrance to
the Acropolis. The Classical temple, designed by architect Kallikrates
and built in 426-421 BC, succeeded earlier temples also dedicated to
Athena Nike. The first one of these, a mid-sixth century BC wooden
temple was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC.

The temple is a small Ionic amphiprostyle structure with four monolithic columns on either short side. The side walls of the cella end in antae,
which flank a pair of pillars. Metal railings placed between the antae
and the pillars and the antae and the side columns created a sort of
small pronaos. Above the epistyle, a frieze by sculptor Agorakritos
depicted battle scenes between the Greeks and Persians on three sides
and, on the east side, an assembly of the Olympian gods watching these
battles. Little is preserved of the pediments, which are believed to
have depicted a Gigantomachy on the western side and an Amazonomachy on
the eastern side. Outside the temple, to its east, was the altar. A
marble parapet was built in 409 BC along the edge of the bastion for
safety reasons. It consists of relief slabs, one metre high, with
representations of winged Victories leading bulls to be sacrificed or
sacrificing them or decorating trophies before the seated Athena.
Several slabs and parts of the frieze can be seen in the Acropolis
Museum; other parts of the frieze are in the British Museum.

In Christian times both the south wing and the central section of the Propylaia were converted into churches, the former during the Early
Christian period (fourth-seventh centuries AD) and the latter in the
tenth century AD when in was dedicated to the Taxiarches. Under Frankish
rule (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries AD) the Propylaia became the
residence of the dukes of de la Roche; during the same period a tower,
known as Koulas, now demolished, was built against the south wing. In
the Ottoman period (1458-1830) the Propylaia were used as garrison
headquarters and munitions store, resulting in a great explosion that
destroyed the building in 1640. After the Greek War of Independence the
Medieval and Turkish additions to the Propylaia were demolished and the
site excavated. Restoration work was undertaken by engineer Nikolaos
Balanos in 1909-1917 and is again in progress since 1982, as part of the
greater conservation and restoration project carried out on the
Acropolis since 1975 by the Restoration Service of the Monuments of the
Acropolis in collaboration with the First Ephorate of Prehistoric and
Classical Antiquities, under the supervision of the Committee for the
Conservation of the Monuments of the Acropolis.

Texts by Ioanna Venieri

Archaeological site of Acropolis, Athens/ Erechtheion:

The area around the Erechtheion was considered the most sacred of the Acropolis. The Erechtheion was a complex marble building in the Ionic
order, an exceptional artwork. The eastern part of the Temple was
dedicated to Athena, whilst the western part was dedicated to local hero
Boutes, Hephaistos and other gods and heroes. Thus, the Erechtheion was
a temple with multiple functions, housing older and newer cults, and
the site of the ‘Sacred Tokens’, the marks made by Poseidon’s trident
and the olive tree, the gift of Athena to the city of Athens.

The building had two porches. The roof of the north porch was
supported on six Ionic columns, while below its floor the Athenians
pointed at the mark of the thunderbolt sent by Zeus to kill the
legendary King Erechteus. At the south porch, which was the most
well-known, the roof was supported by six statues of maidens known as
the Caryatids, instead of the typical columns. Below it stood the grave
of Kekrops, another legendary King of Athens. A building inscription of
the Erechtheion refers to the Caryatids simply as Korai (maidens), while
the name Caryatids was assigned at a later time. The second Korai from
the western section was removed by Lord Elgin in 1801 and is today
located in the British Museum.

Several interpretations about the Caryatids have been put forth. The
most convincing one supports the view that they constituted the visible
portion of the grave of Kekrops and were the choephoroi who paid tribute
to the glorious dead. The main building and the north porch were
surrounded by a continuous Ionic frieze decorated with images of gods,
heroes and mortals, in scenes related to the ancient cults of the
Erechtheion. The figures were separately carved in Parian marble and
affixed on slabs of grey Eleusinian limestone.


From the page of the Acropolis Museum

I was clearing my archive, and I found these pictures I had taken a long time ago. Now that the weather is clearing up I will be probably going up for more pictures…