ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF SPARTA | Laconia | Peloponnese | Golden Greece
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF SPARTA | Laconia | Peloponnese | Golden Greece
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF SPARTA | Laconia | Peloponnese | Golden Greece
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF SPARTA | Laconia | Peloponnese | Golden Greece
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF SPARTA | Laconia | Peloponnese | Golden Greece
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF SPARTA | Laconia | Peloponnese | Golden Greece
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF SPARTA | Laconia | Peloponnese | Golden Greece

Laconia

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF SPARTA

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The most important monuments of the archaeological site are:
At the highest point of the Acropolis hill, the remains of the foundations can be seen where the Sanctuary of Halkioiko Athena was located.
The temple, the work of the architect Bathycles from Magnesia, had interior decoration with copper sheets (6th century BC onwards). Pausanias, son of Cleombrotos, general of Sparta and commander-in-chief of the Greeks in the battle of Plataea, fled there as a beggar in 466 BC, when he was accused of being a traitor, given that he had secret contacts and agreements with Xerxes in order to change Sparta and the rest of Greece in a Persian province.
When the lords of Sparta decided to arrest him, he found asylum in the temple of Chalkioiko Athena and then they built the doors and in fact his mother herself laid the first stone.
Their purpose was for him to die of starvation, but in order not to desecrate the temple with his death, shortly before he died they tore down his roof and brought him up. Both Herodotus and Thucydides mention this.
The famous statue of the 5th century was also found near the sanctuary. BC from Parian marble, known as "Leonidas".
The Ancient Theater of Sparta on the south side of the Acropolis, a work of the early imperial times.
It is the most impressive monument of the archaeological site.
Built on the SW slope of the hill overlooking Sparta and Taygetos. It was built at the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 2nd century. BC but it was covered with marble three centuries later. Although much of its marble cladding has been looted, it retains its old glory even today. Its dimensions are large, it is 140 meters wide and the diameter of the orchestra is 24.5 meters.
The orchestra, the analemmas with inscriptions of the lords of Sparta in Roman times and part of the cavernous part of the great theater are preserved. The tent was dragged on iron bars.
After the end of the 3rd c. BC in front of the wall of the western passage, a Nymphaeum was built.
Next to the ancient Theater, there are remains of shops.
The "circular building", of unknown destination but certainly important for the life of Sparta, is a building of the classical times, built with hewn structures as well as smaller stones. In the form that survives today, it appears to have received repairs during Roman times.
A building of Roman imperial times, built mainly of bricks and decorated inside on mortar, it probably served the spectators of the performances and other events in the Ancient Theatre.
Remains of a large three-aisled Basilica of the mid-Byzantine times, believed to be the "Basilica of Saint Niconos" (7th century AD).

Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou