Greek architecture

Planning of the iconic monuments of Greek Architecture

1. GREEK ARCHITECTURE

2. TOPICS Parthenon T emple of Poseidon Acropolis

3. PARTHENON The Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the zenith of the Doric order To the Athenians who built it, the Parthenon and other Periclean monuments of the Acropolis were seen fundamentally as a celebration of Hellenic victory over the Persian invaders and as a thanksgiving to the gods for that victory

4. SPECIFICATIONS Type: Greek Temple Architectural style: Classical Location: Athens, Greece Construction started: 447 BC Completed: 432 BC Destroyed: Partly on 26 September 1687 Height: 13.72 m (45.0 ft ) Size: 69.5 by 30.9 m (228 by 101 ft )

5. TEMPLE FORM The Parthenon is a Doric Temple , named because of the style/order of column used in its construction A Doric temple has 8 columns on each end and 17 along each side. The Parthenon is 60 meters in length, 30 meters wide and 18 meters in height .

6. PARTS OF THE TEMPLE Cella is The inner, main chamber of a temple . Greek term: Naos . This chamber containing the image of the god was the principal part of the temple. Generally the cella received its light through the open door alone, but sometimes there was also an opening in the roof or possibly windows on either side of the door. In the Greek temple, the porch, portico, or entrance-hall to the temple proper or cella. Greek term: Pronaos There is a porch at the rear of the cella which often served as a rear entrance. Greek term: Opisthodomos

7. PLAN OF THE PARTHENON

8. The cella on the west was dedicated to Athena Parthenos, from which the whole building got the name Parthenon. It’s likely that the western cella was used as a treasury The cella is surrounded by a series of columns, called a colonnade; at each end it also has an additional set of columns between the outside colonnade and the cella.

9. TECHNICAL TERMS

10. TEMPLE OF POSEIDON Type: Greek Temple Architectural style: Classical Location: Sounion, Greece Construction started: 444 BC Completed: 440 BC

11. HISTORY The original, Archaic-period temple of Poseidon on the site, which was built of tufa, was probably destroyed in 480 BC by Persian troops during Xerxes I's invasion of Greece. The temple of Poseidon at Sounion was constructed in 444–440 BC. This was during the ascendancy of the Athenian statesman Pericles, who also rebuilt the Parthenon in Athens. It was built on the ruins of a temple dating from the Archaic period.

12. ARCHITECTURE The design of the peripteros temple is a typical hexastyle, i.e., it had a front portico with six Doric columns 16 out of the 38 columns are standing today (of which four were re-erected in the 20th century). The temple closely resembles the contemporary and well-preserved Temple of Hephaestus beneath the Acropolis, which may have been designed by the same architect . TEMPLE OF HEPHAESTUS

13. ARCHITECTURE As with all Greek temples, the Poseidon building was rectangular, with a colonnade on all four sides encompassing the peristasis . The columns are of the Doric Order. They were made of white marble quarried locally at Laureotic Olympus . They were 6.10 m (20 ft ) high, with a diameter of 1 m (3.1 ft ) at the base and 79 cm (31 inches) at the top It would have contained, at one end facing the entrance, the cult image, a colossal, ceiling-height (6 metres (20 ft )) bronze statue of Poseidon.

14. ACROPOLIS The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon Although the term acropolis is generic and there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is commonly known as "The Acropolis" without qualification

15. HISTORY The hill was inhabited as far as the fourth millennium BC Pericles (c. 495–429 BC) in the fifth century BC who coordinated the construction of the site's most important present remains including the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike The Parthenon and the other buildings were damaged seriously during the 1687 siege by the Venetians during the Morean War when gunpowder being stored in the Parthenon was hit by a cannonball and exploded

16. HISTORY Most of the major temples, including the Parthenon, were rebuilt by order of Pericles during the so-called Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BC). Phidias , an Athenian sculptor, and Ictinus and Callicrates, two famous architects, were responsible for the reconstruction .

17. PROPYLAE During 437 BC, Mnesicles started building the Propylaea, a monumental gate at the western end of the Acropolis with Doric columns of Pentelic marble, built partly upon the old propylaea of Peisistratos 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 façade both on the West to those entering the Acropolis and on the east to those departing

18. PLAN OF THE PROPYLAE

19. ERECTHEUM The temple as seen today was built between 421 and 406 BC. Its architect may have been Mnesicles, and it derived its name from a shrine dedicated to the legendary Greek hero Erichthonius The sculptor and mason of the structure was Phidias, who was employed by Pericles to build both the Erechtheum and the Parthenon The main structure consists of up to four compartments, the largest being the east cella, with an Ionic portico on its east end. The entire temple is on a slope, so the west and north sides are about 3 m (9 ft ) lower than the south and east sides

20. ERECTHEUM It was built entirely of marble It had elaborately carved doorways and windows, and its columns were ornately decorated On the north side, there is another large porch with six Ionic columns, and on the south, the famous "Porch of the Maidens", with six draped female figures (caryatids) as supporting columns PORCH OF THE CARYATIDS PLAN OF THE ERECTHEUM

21. LATER HISTORY During the Byzantine period the Acropolis went through a lot of changes and it was used as a church, administrative centre, cathedral etc., The Ottomans used it as garrison headquarters and the Parthenon was used as a pleasure building After the independence, most features that dated from the Byzantine, Frankish and Ottoman periods were cleared from the site in an attempt to restore the monument to its original form, "cleansed" of all later addition A link to the 3D rendition of the Acropolis readable on Windows is attached below https :// upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Acropolis_3D.stl

22. SITE PLAN OF THE ACROPOLIS Parthenon Old Temple of Athena Erechtheum Statue of Athena Promachos Propylaea Temple of Athena Nike Eleusinion Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion Chalkotheke Pandroseion Arrephorion Altar of Athena Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus Sanctuary of Pandion Odeon of Herodes Atticus Stoa of Eumenes Sanctuary of Asclepius or Asclepieion Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus Odeon of Pericles Temenos of Dionysus Eleuthereus Aglaureion