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Athens: Acropolis
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The Acropolis is still the most recognisable feature of Athens. It is fantastic just to breakfast at your hotel with a view of this hill of monuments. It is known for sure that this was an important place from about 650 BC. The main buildings here are the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the temple of the goddess Athena Nike and the Propylene. At the foot of the Acropolis lies the Plaka, the old centre of Athens.
In the 13th century before our era the Acropolis, a 155 m high limestone plateau that rises above the city, was an important place. Mycenaean kings built a fortified settlement here. It wasn’t until the 6th century before our calendar that the first stone buildings were erected. Between 447 and 438 BC, during the Golden Century of Pericles, the Parthenon was built in honour of Athena Parthenos, the patron goddess of the city. Leading architects and sculptors worked on the monument, which is in the Doric style. Some of the sculpted ornaments in the Parthenon were removed in the early 19th century by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador in Constantinople and are still kept in the London’s “British Museum” today, to the great chagrin of the Greeks.
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Work on the Propylene probably started once these building works were finished. The builders of this monumental Doric style entrance had to bear the proximity of the other monuments in mind, as well as the countless irregularities of the ground. The Erechtheion was built only a few decades later, but in the Ionic style. In the building’s main temple people worshipped Attica’s two most important deities: Athena and Erechtheus. This is where the famed caryatid’s can be seen and admired. At about the same time the architect Kallikrates built the smallish temple to the goddess Athena Nike, also in the Ionic style.
In and around the Plaka, a tourist area of narrow streets and tiny squares at the front of the Acropolis, you will find an unusually variety of buildings: 2500 year-old ruins, more modern churches, a Turkish bathhouse and several museums. But you will also find restaurants, taverns and terraces. The main historical monument here is probably “Mnimio Lyssikratous”, once a round building with a bronze trophy gifted after Lyssikratous’ victory in a theatrical competition.
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Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/Blaz Kure
Text: RD - © AT-Europe bvba
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