Wanloria › Destinations › Athens › Old Temple of Athena

Old Temple of Athena

The Old Temple of Athena was an archaic Greek limestone temple, Doric and peripteral in style, dedicated to Athena Polias and located on the Acropolis of Athens, north of the Hekatompedon temple and south of the present-day Erechtheion. The building, constructed around 529-520 BC, had 6 columns on the short sides and 12 on the long sides, with an Ionic-style pronaos and opisthodomos, and its stylobate measured about 43.4 m long and 21.3 m wide. Its naos housed the cult statue of Athena, an ancient olive-wood xoanon believed to have fallen from the sky in the time of Erechtheus and dressed in a new peplos each year. The temple was damaged by the Persians in 480 BC, repaired shortly after, and finally burned down in 406 BC, never to be rebuilt. Discovered in 1885 and identified by Wilhelm Dörpfeld, today only the foundations of its south side remain, next to the Erechtheion, the bases of two stone columns from the geometric-period temple, and, to the east, traces of the altar of Athena on the bedrock. Part of its sculptural decoration, in particular the remains of a pediment depicting a gigantomachy, is kept in the Acropolis Museum.

Things to do at Old Temple of Athena: 1 missions

• Visit Old Temple of AthenaVisit Old Temple of Athena in Athens and recognise the place on the ground.

Near Old Temple of Athena

Source: Fuentes verificadas