An archaeological site with a train running through? Yes! Travel back in time in those old ruins, soak in the atmosphere, and learn about life around the old marketplace, the Agora.

Ancient and Roman Agora Tour  | Cultural Places

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We hope you had a great time exploring the ancient and Roman agora. This tour has been designed by the Cultural Places team.

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•	The Odeon of Agrippa is located in the central part of the Ancient Agora and was built in 15 BC.
 •	It was a large concert hall for musical performances and philosophical lectures.
 • The	Odeon of Agrippa had two floors, and capacity for 1000 spectators.
 •	From the 2nd century AD, the odeon served as a lecture hall, which is confirmed by the remains of statues of various philosophers.

Odeon of Agrippa

• The Stoa of Attalos was an ancient shopping mall, built in the 2nd Century BC by King Attalos of Pergamon. • It was restored in 1956 by the American School of Classical Studies. • This impressively long building on two floors has 45 Doric style columns on the ground floor and Ionic style columns on the first floor. • Today, it houses the valuable Museum of the Ancient Agora.

Stoa of Attalos - Museum

•	The Post-Herulian Wall was built in 367 AD after the Herulians devastated Athens and destroyed many buildings at the Ancient Agora.
 •	To protect themselves from future invaders, Athenians built a wall taking advantage of everything they found after the Herulians' destruction (marble blocks, columns, and statues).
 •	The wall started at the Acropolis with a new gate stretching down the east side of the roadway by the ruins of the Stoa of Attalos and then turned east towards the Library of Hadrian.

The Post-Herulian Wall

•	The Middle Stoa housed a large mall of shops and offices for the citizens of Athens and was built in 180 BC.
 •	 It was a very long structure measuring 152 by 18 m (500 by 60 feet) and looked like the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos.
 •	All that is left of the construction are the short column fragments that supported the roof structure and some stone blocks.
 •	The Middle Stoa was damaged in 86 BC, and little is known about its history, leaving things up to our imagination.

Middle Stoa

•	The Monument of the Eponymous Heroes, built around 350 BC, was a marble podium accompanied by bronze statues of the ten heroes representing the tribes of Athens.
 • The ten tribes were named after ten mythical heroes who were chosen by the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi from the preliminary list obtained from Athenians.
 •	The Monument was also an information center, something like a "bulletin board" and a meeting place, where announcements and legislation decisions have been published.

Monument of the Eponymous Heroes

•	The Tholos was one of the most important public buildings in the Ancient Agora and the venue were the 50 ministers (Prytaneis) met, who served as the executive committee of the Boule (Council).
 •	It was built around 470 BC, with a propylon at the east that was added in the 1st century BC. The building's diameter was about 60 feet (18 meters) and had six internal Ionic pillars that supported the roof.
 •	Today only the foundation and a short column in its center remains.

Tholos

•	The "Senate House", called the Bouleuterion and set north of the Tholos, was the seat of a 500-member Boule.
 •	Each free male citizen of Athens participated in decision-making: they elected 500 Council members who then chosse 50 ministers.
 •	The Bouleuterion together with the Tholos represented the administrative heart of Athens and the center of democracy.

New Bouleuterion

•	The Altar of the Twelve Gods was an important altar and sanctuary and was built around 522 BC.
 •	Presumably, the altar was dedicated to the twelve Olympian gods.
 •	This place was considered the heart of Athens and the central marker for calculating the distances from the city.
 •	Today, very little of the remains can be seen because almost nine-tenths lies hidden under the Athens-Piraeus Electric Railway. Only the southwest corner of the enclosure is visible.

Altar of the Twelve Gods

•	The Temple of Hephaestus is one of the best-preserved Doric temples of ancient Greece.
 •	It was built between 460 and 420 BC.
 •	It was dedicated to Hephaestus, the ancient god of fire.
 •	In the Middle Ages, the temple was turned into a Christian church and consequently into a museum in 1834.
 •	It remained a museum until 1930.

Temple of Hephaestus

• This small orthodox church was built in the 10th century.
 •	It is one of the oldest churches in Athens.
 •	You can see frescoes from the 17th Century in excellent condition.
 •	Presumably, the church was partially built on top of the sanctuary of the Nymphs (nymphaion), built in the 2nd century.
 •	The Church of the Holy Apostles sets a prototype for the later Athenian churches, known as "Athenian type."
 •	The Festival of the Twelve Apostles is still celebrated at this church every June 30th.

Church of the Holy Apostles

•	After the Herulian Invasion in 268 AD Athen’s administrative and trade center was relocated from Ancient Agora to Roman Agora.
 •	The construction of the Roman Agora began in the first century BC during the Roman rule with the donations from Julius Caesar and Augustus.
 •	It was a roomy, rectangular space with a colonnade around, surrounded by stoas, shops, and storerooms.
 •	The Roman Agora was the first form of a market center we know today.

Introduction to the Roman Agora

•	The Gate of Athena Archegetis ("Athena the Leader") is the main entrance located on the west side of Roman Agora.
 •	In this building we can see the great adaptability of the Roman Empire to Greek architecture.
 •	In the pediment were statues or portraits of the grandsons of Augustus, Lucius Caesar, and Gaius Caesar.
 •	Unfortunately, these sculptures have been lost.

Gate of Athena Archegetis

•	The Fethiye Mosque is an Ottoman mosque built in the 17th Century. 
 •	It is located on the northern side of the ancient Roman Agora.
 •	After several years of restoration and reconstruction of the mosque, it was opened to the public in 2017, and cultural exhibitions are now held there.

Fethiye Mosque

•	The East Propylon is an eastern entrance to the Roman Agora built between 19 and 11 BC. There is a row of four Ionic columns made of gray marble standing on columns without fluting.
 •	Both western and eastern entrances were south of the axon, the east one even more to the south, so there are assumptions that the road was located south-east.
 •	When the Agoranomeion was built on the eastern side of the Roman Agora, this entrance became the monumental entrance for those who came from the Agora.

East Propylon

•	The Agoranomion is a building on the east side of Roman Agora and was erected in the 1st century AD. •	What is visible today from this rectangular building is a part of its facade with three gates with arched lintels, stairs, and parts of the north and south walls.
 •	According to the engraved inscription the building was dedicated to the Archegetis Athena and the deified Sebasti which could be identified with the Sevastion, a structure for the worship of the Emperor.

Agoranomion

•	The Tower of the Winds, also called Horologion of Andronikos Kyrristos, was built in the 1st century BC by the astronomer Andronicos.
 •	Presumably, it was a kind of sophisticated clock tower because of sundials on exterior walls and an elaborate water clock in the interior.
 •	The tower has two Corinthian porches, a conical roof, and a cylindrical annex on the south side.

Tower of the Winds

•	Many changes happened in Athens after the Roman conquest of Greece in the 1st century BC. A lot of buildings have been destroyed, but for wealthy Romans Athens was still a place of admiration worth investing in.
 •	Great philosophers and poets such as Cicero, Horace, and Ovid were inspired by Athens. They were intrigued by rhetorical and philosophical lectures, thus invested in restorations of important buildings.
 • The	Roman Agora became the main market of the city, taking over many commercial functions.

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Ancient and Roman Agora Tour

Stoa of Attalos

•	The Stoa of Attalos was an ancient shopping mall, built in the 2nd Century BC by King Attalos of Pergamon.
 •	It was restored in 1956 by the American School of Classical Studies.
 • This impressively long building on two floors has 45 Doric style columns on the ground floor and Ionic style columns on the first floor.
 •	Today, it houses the valuable Museum of the Ancient Agora.

Ancient and Roman Agora Tour

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