The temple was built on the site of an ancient outdoor
sanctuary dedicated to Zeus. The tyrant Pisistratus built a temple for the god
around 550 BC. Around 520 BC, the current temple began to be constructed and was
completed under the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian in second century
AD, about 640 years after the start. Pisistratus’s sons began the construction.
The temple was intended to be built of local limestone in the Corinthian style.
It was supposed to be a 134.5 foot by 353 foot platform. On the front side,
there would be a double colonnade of eight columns, and on the sides, twenty
one. The project was abandoned approximately
ten years after it began, when only the platform and some elements were
completed. For 336 years, the site remained in this state. In 174 BC, the
Seleucid king, Antiochus IV, resumed the construction of the Greek temple and
put Decimus Cossutius, a Roman architect, in charge of the project. Under Cossutius,
the design changed. The double colonnade in the front changed to a triple, and
the twenty one columns on the sides changed to twenty totaling in 104 columns. Each
column was to be seventeen meters high and two in diameter. The building
material changed to Pentelic marble and the style changed to Doric; this was
the first time the exterior of a major temple would be in the Doric style.
Antiochus’s death in 164 BC halted the construction of the project at its
midpoint. For the most part, in the following years it was damaged and neglected
until Hadrian rose to power and resumed the construction. It was completed in second century AD.
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After he completed the construction, the temple was formally
dedicated to Hadrian. The temple itself and the surrounding precinct were
decorated with statues depicting Hadrian, the gods and personification of roman
provinces.
The temples era of glory was short lived- after the Herulian
sack and invasion of Athens in 3rd century AD, it fell to disuse. It
is unclear if it was used in its damaged state but if it was used, it would
have been formally closed in 425 AD by the Christian emperor Theodosius III
when he prohibited worship of old Roman and Greek gods.
Over the following centuries, the temple was used as a quarry
for building materials needed for other projects. By the end of the Byzantine period, it was
almost totally destroyed. Today, nothing
remains of the cella and only fifteen of the original 104 columns stand with
one more on the ground after being toppled in a storm in 1852. The site was
excavated by Francis Penrose (British) in 1889-1896, by Gabriel Welter (German)
in 1922 and by a team of Greek archaeologists in the 1960s.
Over the years, different peoples called it by different
names. During the Ottoman’s times, the locals called it the Palace of Hadrian.
During Turkish rule, it was called the Palace of Belkis, due to a legend that
it was a palace constructed for one of King Solomon’s wives.
Sources:
1- Watkin, David. A History of Western Architecture: Sixth ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1986. Print.
2- Martin, Roland. Greek Architecture: Electa Architecture, 2003. Print
1- Watkin, David. A History of Western Architecture: Sixth ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1986. Print.
2- Martin, Roland. Greek Architecture: Electa Architecture, 2003. Print
