The Acropolis has always represented the religious and political symbol of Athens, but above all the values of the classical world.
The word acropolis comes from the Greek language and means“high city” (from àkros “high “and pòlis “city”), it is a 156 m high rocky esplanade, flattened on the summit, set above the city of Athens.
The area extends 280 m length and 140 in width. In antiquity the site was called“Cecropia,” in honor of the first Athenian king Cecrope.
In this article I will describe the Acropolis Rock and its history.
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Table of content
The history of the Sacred Rock
Origins
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SinceNeolithic times, the hill that later became famous as the ”Acropolis of Athens” was inhabited; indeed, signs of prehistoric life have been found in some caves.
The Mycenaean Age
In Mycenaean times because of the elevated position of the fortress, which hassheer slopes to the plain that allowed early glimpses of enemies, a fortified citadel was founded there to house the monarch’s residence. Of the king’s residence, called a mègaron, sandstone steps and the base of a column remain.
Also dating back to the Mycenaean civilization is the impressive circle of polygonal walls, about ten meters high and 760 meters in length. This wall, which reached a thickness of six meters in some places, constituted the main defense of the city, and followed the course of the land on which the fortress stands. Access was via very steep stairways carved into the stone.
The classical age
Between the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.E., when political conditions in ancient Greece changed from monarchy to a democratic form of government, the Acropolis went from being an inhabited citadel to becoming thesacred area of the settlement, dedicated to the worship of deities, mainly the goddess Athena. The center of city life was moved to theagora, and the strategic function was gradually abandoned, thanks in part to the new, wider defensive walls that surrounded the entire settlement.
In the 6th century B.C., under the tyrant Pisistratus the area was chosen for the celebration of the Panathenae, the festivals dedicated to the goddess Athena, which were celebrated every four years for nine days beginning on July 28, the day of the goddess’s supposed birth.
this began to give the present buildings a monumental character; no trace of these monuments remains, for they were destroyed during the wars against the Persians in 480 bc.
Under the tyranny of Pisistratus the first Propylaea, that is, the first monumental entrance to the acropolis, were built. Archaeological excavations have also uncovered fragments of sculptures and the foundations of what was probably the first temple of the Acropolis.
Around 550 BCE a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, called Hekatompedon, was built, probably on the spot where the Parthenon now stands.
Between 529 and 520 B.C. a temple dedicated to Athena Poliàs was erected, destroyed in the wars against the Persians in 480 B.C., and later rebuilt, but of which, perhaps because of a fire, no trace remains today.
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Around 500 B.C. the first Parthenon was built on the spot where the Hekantompedon had originally been built. For the construction of the temple, the southern area of the fortress was leveled by the placement of tons of marble blocks, the construction of tall foundation structures, and the filling of the empty areas by an earth fill kept in place by a retaining wall. Work came to a halt due to the invasion of the Persians in 480 B.C., who looted and burned many of the buildings there.
With the war over, the Athenians decided to collect what remained of their monuments and set them into a new wall, located on the north side of the acropolis, as a memorial to the war.
The objects that now constituted debris were instead burned and deposited in deep pits, going to form an artificial plateau , this archaeological deposit is called the Persian fill and is still visible today. In 1886 and 1887, numerous sculptures were found there ( Blond Ephebe, Ephebe of Kritios, series of korai, Rampin Horseman, etc.) and architectural elements belonging to at least nine buildings.
The heyday of building renewal occurred in the 5th century under the Athenian politician Pericles, and that culminated with the construction of the Parthenon. Athens had just emerged victorious from the war against the Persians and ruled as over an empire over the allied cities of the Delian League, whose treasury, transferred from Delos to Athens, was drawn upon to construct the new monuments.
The Acropolis always remained the religious and political symbol of Athens, but above all of the values of the classical world.
During the later Hellenistic and Roman eras, which used Greek art as a model, its buildings were restored and new monuments were added.
Byzantine and Muslim domination
In the 9th century, during Byzantine rule the temple was converted into a church,and in 1458 into a mosque, with no major changes made under Muslim occupation.
In 1687, during the Venetians’ siege against the Ottomans in the Morean War, an incendiary bomb reached the interior of the Parthenon, which was being used as a Turkish ammunition depot; the explosion destroyed much of the southern portion of the building, which was later converted into a smaller mosque.
In addition, the temple of Athena Nike was dismantled. The stones were reused in 1687 to build a rampart for defensive purposes; the latter remained on the site of the ancient temple until Greek independence, when in 1831 it was decided to rebuild the temple.
The nineteenth century and the ”flight of the marbles” to London
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Famous are the events in the early nineteenth century involving Lord Elgin, who was responsible for the removal of four slabs of the temple frieze of the temple temple temple and several elements of the Parthenon, preserved today at the British Museum in London. The remaining originals are kept at Acropolis Museum.
following the final victory of the Greeks the area became an archaeological zone, and in 1832 the Kingdom of Greece undertook restoration work on the Acropolis, overseeing the work were the two German scholarsI LudwigRoss and Eduard Shaubert. The philosophy of the intervention was to unearth the monument as it had been conceived in classical Greece, demolishing all the medieval and Ottoman buildings constructed in later centuries.
The Acropolis to the present day
Beginning in 1988, the surviving monuments were the subject of an extensive restoration program . The work included the reintegration of several stone parts and the removal of bas-reliefs, which were moved inside the Acropolis Museum for preservation purposes.
Since 1987 the complex has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
In 2009, the Acropolis Museum was inaugurated, which preserves all the archaeological finds and sculptural apparatus discovered during the restorations.
Frequently asked questions
The word acropolis comes from the Greek language and means “high city” (from àkros “high “and pòlis “city”).
The Acropolis, from the Greek ”high city,” is an imposing rocky outcrop overlooking the city of Athens. In the 5th century, the period of the city’s greatest expansion, a complex of religious buildings celebrating the city’s power and dominance arose in this area, including the Parthenon, the Propylaea, and the temple of Athena Nike.
The main monuments standing on the Acropolis Rock of Athens are the Parthenon,the Erechtheion, the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike, the Archaic Temple of Athena, the Theater of Herodes Atticus, and the newer Acropolis Museum.
The Acropolis was built at the behest of Pericles, who called the official artist of the city of Athens, the sculptor Phidias, to oversee the work. Three architects collaborated mainly on its design: Ictinus, Mnesicles, and Callicrates.
Buildings that stood on the Acropolis include The Propylaea, the Parthenon, The Temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheion the Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus, the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia, the Sanctuary of Pandion, the Odeum of Herodes Atticus, the Sanctuary of Aphrodite Pandemos and Demeter, the Chalcotheca, the Pandroseion, the Arrephorion, the Stoa of Attalus, the Stoa of Eumene, the Sanctuary of Asclepius, the Sanctuary of Dionysus, the Odeo of Pericles, the Sanctuary of Dionysus, the Sanctuary of Aphrodite and Eros, the Cave of Aglaurus and the Thission.
The construction of the Parthenon was between 447 and 432 B.C. It is an exemplary complex of the classical period. The design of a great temple to erase the memory of the ‘Persian invasion and celebrate Athena, protector of the city.
Conclusions
Here we come to the end of this article in which I have told you about thehistorical and architectural evolution of the Acropolis and the monuments found on its southern side, if you have any doubts or questions please do not hesitate to write to me!
Tickets for Acropolis Athens
Buy online. Choose the time of your choice. Visit the Acropolis of Athens, the Ancient Agora, the Roman Agora, Hadrian’s Library and other archaeological sites.
You can cancel for free up to the day before your visit.
