Gate to Greece > Athens > Places to Visit > Athenian Agora > Stoa of Attalos and Museum
<Locations> Agora Site, Athens, Attica, Greece
Hellenistic Stoa at the eastern end of the Athenian Agora site. As you can see from the photo, it is mostly reconstruction. In the 1940's, because of the increasing need to store and exhibit the findings from the Agora excavations, it was decided to reconstruct this Stoa and to use it as museum. The construction work started in 1952, and finished in 1956. The materials used at visible places are the same as the original so far as possible.
This Stoa was donated to Athens by the king Attalos II of Pergamum (159-138 BCE) around 150 BCE; it is known from the large inscription incised on the architrave (Agora Inscription, vol. I 6135).
The two-storey stoa is 115 metres in length and 20 metres in width. Inside, there are two rows of columns, and at the east end (right side in this photo) there are 21 rooms. Now these rooms are used as exhibition space, while, in Antiquity, they were used as shops. The structure is same also for the upper floor, but the chapters were Pergamum style.
Bibliography
- John M. Camp, The Athenian Agora. Excavations in the Heart of Classical Athens, London/ Thames and Hudson, 1986, pp. 169-175.
- Christopher Mee and Antony Spawforth, Greece. An Oxford Archaeological Guide, Oxford/ OUP, 2001, pp. 71-72.
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