The
Stoa of Attalos is the most splendid Hellenistic building in the Agora and the
only one to have been restored in contemporary times using almost exclusively
modern building material. It houses the Agora Museum. The building was an
imposing two-storey Stoa of the Pergamene type, dominating the east side of the
Agora, offering a sheltered refuge to visitors and housing a series of shops.
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The
building material employed in its construction reflects the attention to
luxury: the columns of the west side, facing the Agora Square, were made up of
white Pentelic marble, as were the columns inside the Stoa and the epistyles.
The steps and the stylobate of both storeys, the toichobate, the orthostatai,
the taenia coursing the façade’s wall, the door posts and the outside stairway
which connected the two storeys were constructed of azure-grey Hymettian
marble. The other parts of the walls were made up of hard Piraeus limestone.
The foundations were made up of pebbles. The low parapet connecting the
intercolumnal spaces in the exterior colonnade of the second storey was colored
blue and red.
The foundations has shown that the original plan was for
a rather smaller Stoa, with 14 rooms only on each storey. While part of the
construction work had already been completed (the rooms of the south side and
some parts of the north section), the plan was altered and the building was
significantly enlarged. Four rooms were added in the south side; these were
smaller than the rest, and the outside stairways were placed, each with a width
of 2.21m. Finally, before this enlargement was completed a new one was made;
three more rooms were added in the north side, each with a width of 4.11m. Some
of these rooms were used as offices, while most of them housed shops.
The Stoa was a favored place for setting up statues and
monuments in honor of the city’s benefactors.
A large square was constructed in front of the Stoa in
order to create a large level space on which the Stoa could rest. The square
was 7.33m wide, and together with the comfortable spaces of the storey, it
allowed the viewing of athletic and other events taking place in the area of
the Agora by large groups of people. The south section of the building featured
a fountain, while pedestals that supported statues, a bema and other monuments
have been discovered in front of the Stoa.
The
Stoa was severely damaged during the raid of the Heruli. It was completely destroyed
in the late 3rd century when the Late Roman defensive wall was
constructed, especially as three of its turrets were erected on the spot of the
doors of the Stoa's shops.
Parts
of the building remained visible until the mid-19th century. It was
then believed that the ruins belonged to two different buildings, the Stoa and
the Gymnasium, but this misapprehension was rectified by the excavations of the
Athenian Archaeological Society in 1859. The American School of Classical
Studies conducted excavations in the Stoa’s site between 1949 and 1953. In
1953-1956 the Stoa was restored using the drawings of the architect which are
considered a faithful adaptation of the ancient design. Paradoxically, the
ancient building has not been published yet – some of its unearthed
architectural members still remain unidentified. The American School implements
a project in the context of which all of the surviving authentic material from
the Stoa is documented.
