Acropolis is a Greek word meaning 'high city'.
Acropolis is a Greek word meaning 'high city'.
The Acropolis, a fortified citadel built atop a massive limestone hill, dominates the city of Athens, Greece. The Acropolis contains some of the world's most famous structures built in the classical architectural style. These buildings include the Parthenon (a Doric temple built for Athena, the goddess of wisdom), the Propylaea, and the Erechtheum. They were constructed during the Golden Age of Athens (5th century BC) under the rule of the famous Athenian statesman Pericles.
The Athenian Acropolis rises from the plain of Attica to 500 feet above sea level. In times of attack the Acropolis became the last fort of defense. The Acropolis hill, so called the "Sacred Rock" of Athens, is the most important site of the city.
During Perikles' Golden Age, ancient Greek civilization was represented in an ideal way on the hill and some of the architectural masterpieces of the period were erected on its ground.
The first habitation remains on the Acropolis date from the Neolithic period.
Over the centuries, the rocky hill was continuously used either as a cult place or as a residential area or both.
The inscriptions on the numerous and precious offerings to the sanctuary of Athena (marble korai, bronze and clay statuettes and vases) indicate that the cult of the city's patron goddess was established as early as the Archaic period (650-480 B.C.).
During the Classical period (450-330 B.C.) three important temples were erected on the ruins of earlier ones: the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Nike, dedicated to Athena Parthenos, Athena Polias, and Athena-Apteros Nike, respectively.
The Propylaea, the monumental entrance to the sacred area was also constructed in the same period.
The monuments on the Acropolis reflect the successive phases of the city's history. Some of them were converted into Christian churches, houses of the Franks and later on, of the Turks.
After the liberation of Athens from the Turks, the protection, restoration and conservation of the monuments was one of the first tasks of the newly-founded Greek state.
This major effort is continued until today, with the large-scale restoration and supporting of the monuments, which started in the 1970's and is still in progress.
The first excavations on the hill were conducted between 1835 and 1837. More systematic work was carried out in 1885-1890 by Panagiotis Kavvadias.
The Parthenon is the largest building on top of the Acropolis. It was dedicated to Athena Parthenos. It was completely made out of pentelic marble and surrounded by free-standing columns.
The Parthenon was designed by Ictinus and Callcrates, with the sculpture by Phidias. It was uncommon in that it had two rooms within its cella, the enclosed space inside the colonnade.
The smaller room was dedicated to Parthenon. Eventually, the whole building was named after her.
The Parthenon is the most important and characteristic monument of the ancient Greek civilization and still remains its international symbol. It was dedicated to Athena Parthenos, the patron goddess of Athens.
It was built between 447 and 438 B.C. and its sculptural decoration was completed in 432 B.C. The construction of the monument was initiated by Perikles, the supervisor of the whole work was Pheidias, the famous Athenian sculptor, while Iktinos and Kallikrates were the architects of the building.
The temple is built in the Doric order and almost exclusively of Pentelic marble. It is peripteral, with eight columns on each of the narrow sides and seventeen columns on each of the long ones.
The central part of the temple, called the cella, sheltered the famous chryselephantine cult statue of Athena, made by Pheidias.
The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon is a unique combination of the Doric metopes and triglyphs on the entablature, and the Ionic frieze on the walls of the cella.
The metopes depict the Gigantomachy on the east side, the Amazonomachy on the west, the Centauromachy on the south, and scenes from the Trojan War on the north.
The relief frieze depicts the Procession of the Panathenaea, the most formal religious festival of ancient Athens. The scene runs along all
the four sides of the building and includes the figures of gods, beasts and of some 360 humans.
The two pediments of the temple are decorated with mythological scenes: the east, above the building's main entrance, shows the birth of Athena, and the west, the fight between Athena and Poseidon for the name of the city of Athens.
The Parthenon retained its religious character in the following centuries and was converted into a Byzantine church, a Latin church and a Muslim mosque.
The Turks used the Parthenon as a powder magazine when the Venetians, under Admiral Morosini, sieged the Acropolis in 1687.
One of the Venetian bombs fell on the Parthenon and caused a tremendous explosion that destroyed a great part of the monument which had been preserved in a good condition until then.
The disaster was completed in the beginning of the 19th century, when the British ambassador in Constantinople, Lord Elgin, stole the greatest part of the sculptural decoration of the monument (frieze, metopes, pediments), transferred them to England and sold them to the British Museum, where they are still exhibited, being one of the most significant collections of the museum.
The Propylaea, located at the west end of the hill, is the gateway to the Acropolis. Although this was never completed, the present structure was worked on in 437-432 B.C. by the architect Mnesicles.
The temple of Athena Nike, also known as Athena of Victory, sits southwest of the Propylaea. The Nike temple remained intact until 1686, when the Turks dismantled the building to us the blocks in fortifications.
It was resembled hastily in 1836 and then more carefully reerected by Balanos and A.K. Orlandos in 1935-1940.
The temple of Erechteus, or Erechtheum, was the last the most complex, and the most richly embellished of the Periclean buildings.
The Erechtheum is best known for it's caryatid porch.
The present caryatids are copies, the originals having been moved in order to preserve them.
The Peloponnesian War erupted as soon as the Parthenon and the Propylaea were completed. Not long after this, Pericles died in the epidemic which had raged in Athens, but the Athenians did not abandon his plans.
With the temporary cessation of hostilities brought about by the peace of Nicias in 421 BC, work began on the temple of Athena Polias, subsequently known as the Erechteum.
The architect who designed the building is unknown, but one finds it difficult not to recall Mnesicles when gazing upon this remarkably graceful lonic structure, unique in Greek architecture for its originality of conception and its functional adaptation to accommodate the needs of so many cults.
Who but Mnesicles could have given such a daring and original solution to the most difficult problems of an irregular terrain and especially the multiple religious needs of the numerous cults.
Lay-out of the building.
The Erechteum was completed in 406 BC. It has a prostasis on the east side, a monumental propylon on the north and the famous porch of the Caryatids on the south.
The main temple was divided into two sections, dedicated to the worship of the two principal gods of Attica, Athena and Poseidon Erechteus.
A relief frieze, bearing the representation possibly of the birth of Erechteus, decorated the exterior of the building.
The west side of building, with its own monumental entrance, held the altars of Poseidon Erechteus, Hephaistos and the hero Butes.
In this part were also the holes in the rock visible which were made by the trident of Poseidon during his disagreement with Athena, and the Erechteis sea which was the well of Poseidon which contained salt water and sounded like the wide sea when the wind came from the south.
The hall of the caryatids was situated above the grave of Cecrops, the first king of Athens.
The cella of Pallas Athena was located in the east part.
Here the old Archaic statue of the goddess was placed and lighted day and night by a very ingenious lamp which was invented by Callimachus who is traditionally credited for the invention of the Corinthic capitel.
Above the lamp, which was only filled once a year, hung a bronze palm branch which was supposed to remove the smoke from the temple.
Furthermore old pieces of art were kept in the cella like the ancient wooden statue of Hermes, the xoanon, which was blessed by Cecrops, a folding-chair made by the father of arts Daedalus, and several trophies from the Persian wars as the suit of armour of Masistius and the sword of Mardonius, both Persian generals during the battle of Plataea.
The altars of Zeus Hypatos, of Poseidon and Erechtheus, of Hephaistos, of the hero Boutes, of the Thyechoos, and the very ancient xoanon of Hermes, all had to be accommodated harmoniously. Lastly room would have to be found for the sacred olive and the sanctuary of Pandrosos which included the altar of Zeus Herkeios. The architect succeeded by subtle and ingenious use of the differences in level to produce an astonishing temple which satisfied the requirements of all these cults. He respected the traditions and at the same time introduced striking innovations.
The resulting building may appear complicated at first sight, but it bears the mark of true genius and contains more original feature than any other structure in the Greek world.
It consists of three almost independent sections (the main temple, the north extension and the porch of the caryatids) with three separate roofs, and is built at four different levels. Ionic columns of three different dimensions and proportions are used, and, following an old Ionian custom, use is also made of corai as supports for the entablature - the famous caryatids. The Erechteum is the finest expression of the Ionic order, yet the building loses none of the compact austerity of classical Attic architecture.
The frieze of Eleusinian stone is of a deep grey color, and relief figures were attached to it and secured by means of metal connecting pins set in the slabs. The Erechtheion was built in ca. 420 B.C. in the Ionic order. It has a prostasis on the east side, a monumental propylon on the north, and the famous porch of the Caryatids on the south.
The main temple was divided into two sections, dedicated to the worship of the two principal gods of Attica, Athena and Poseidon-Erechtheus. A relief frieze, bearing a representation possibly of the birth of Erechtheus, decorated the exterior of the building.
The Athena Nike was the earliest Ionic building to be built on the Acropolis around 427 BC. The temple was completed during the unrest of the Peloponnesian war. Made completely of marble, its small size was compensated for in its position, resting on a rocky outcrop, purposely positioned so the Athenian people could worship the goddess of victory in hope of prosperous outcomes in the war's endeavours. The decision to build Athena Nike was an expression of Athens's ambitions to be a world power as opposed to Persia. The frieze on the temple displays the decisive victory over the Persians at the battle of Plataea and a meeting between the gods Athena, Zeus and Poseidon.
The battle helping Athenians reminisce the glory days of victory, hoping such previous outcomes will spur the Athenians on and raise morale. The meeting of the gods signifies Athenian religious beliefs and if the temple was to be worshipped their may have been hope of creating favour with the gods which would have been necessary to 5th Century Athenians during the current political climate. Once the temple was completed the Athenians added a protective parapet. The parapet displayed an expression of determination and hope for final victory. This was not the only piece of sculpture which depicts a sign the Athenians want to conclude the long battle with Sparta, in the cellar of the temple is a statue of Athena as Nike Apterus, the goddess without wings. Her wings may have been removed by the Athenians hoping she would remain in Athens for success over the Spartans.
The Propylaea, Propylea or Propylaia is the monumental gateway that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. The word propylaia is the prefix pro (before or in front of) plus the plural of the Greek pylon or pylaion (gate), meaning literally that which is before the gates, but the word has come to mean simply gate building. It may have been topped with a statue or symbol, likely of Athena.
The Brandenburg Gate of Berlin is specifically copied from it.The Propylaea was built under the general direction of the Athenian leader Pericles, but Phidias was given the responsibility for planning the rebuilding the Acropolis as a whole at the conclusion of the Persian Wars.
The building was designed by the architect Mnesicles. Construction began in 437 BCE and was terminated in 431, when the building was still unfinished.The Propylaea was constructed of white Pentelic marble and gray Eleusinian marble or limestone, which was used only for accents. Structural iron was also used, though William Bell Dinsmoor - "Structural Iron in Greek Architecture," American Journal of Archaeology, XXVI, 1922 - analyzed the structure and concluded that the iron weakened the building.
The structure consists of a central building with two adjoining wings on the west (outer) side, one to the north and one to the south. The core is the central building, which presents a standard six-columned Doric facade both on the West to those entering the Acropolis and on the east to those departing. The columns echo the proportions (not the size) of the columns of the Parthenon.The central building contains the gate wall, about two-thirds of the way through it.
There are five gates in the wall, one for the central passageway, which was not paved and lay along the natural level of the ground, and two on either side at the level of the building. The central passageway was the culmination of the Sacred Way, which led to the Acropolis from Eleusis.Entrance into the Acropolis was controlled by the Propylaea.
Though it was not built as a fortified structure, it was important that people not ritually clean be denied access to the sanctuary. In addition, runaway slaves and other miscreants could not be permitted into the sanctuary where they could claim the protection of the gods. The state treasury was also kept on the Acropolis, making its security important.
The gate wall and the eastern (inner) portion of the building sit at a level five steps above the western portion, and the roof of the central building rose on the same line. The ceiling in the eastern part of the central building was famous in antiquity, having been called by Pausanias (about 600 years after the building was finished) " &down to the present day unrivalled."
It consisted of marble blocks carved in the shape of ceiling coffers and painted blue with gold stars.The wings to the right and left of the central building stood on the same platform as the central building but were much smaller, not only in plan but in scale. Like the central building, the wings use Doric colonnades and Doric entablatures. However, the central building also has an Ionic colonnade on either side of the central passageway between the western (outer) Doric colonnade and the gate wall.
This is therefore the first building known to us with Doric and Ionic colonnades visible at the same time. It is also the first monumental building in the classical period to be more complex than a simple rectangle or cylinder.The wing on the north (to the left as one enters the Acropolis) was famous in antiquity as the location of paintings of important Greek battles.
Pausanias reports their presence, but few scholars believe the room was planned to hold them. Recent scholarship, following the lead of John Travlos (Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens, New York, 1971), has taken the northern wing to have been a room for ritual dining. The evidence for that is the off-center doorway and the position near the entrance to the Acropolis.
The wing on the south, though much smaller, was clearly designed to appear to be symmetrical. It seems only to have functioned as an access route to the Temple of Athena Nike.There were two wings planned for the east side of the Propylaea, facing in to the Acropolis. Preparations for both wings are apparent at the eastern end of the central building and along the side walls, but it seems that the plan for a southern wing was abandoned early in the construction process since the old fortification wall was not demolished, as required for that wing. The north wing was not built either.
To the right of the Propylaea and further west, on the raised bastion prepared for it, stood the Temple of Athena Nike. As a result of the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta in 431 BC, the Propylaea was never completed. Not only are the eastern wings missing, the wall surfaces were not trimmed to their finished shapes, and lifting bosses remain on many blocks.The Propylaea survived intact through the Greek, Roman and Byzantine periods. During the period of Latin Empire, it served as the palace of the de la Roche family, who held the title Duke of Athens from 1204 to 1311.
It was severely damaged by an explosion of a powder magazine in 1656. A tower of French or Ottoman date, erected on the south wing, was pulled down in 1874.
Today the Propylaea has been partly restored, since 1984 under the direction of Dr Tasos Tanoulas, and serves as the main entrance to the Acropolis for the many thousands of tourists who visit the area every year. In the period before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the Propylaia was shrouded in scaffolding as restoration work was undertaken.
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