Hadrian's Gate

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Drawing from the 18th century (reconstruction)

The Hadrianstor ( Greek Πύλη του Αδριανού , as Adrian sheet hereinafter) is an old building in Athens . It marks the entrance to the Athens Olympieion and was inaugurated in honor of Hadrian on his visit to Athens in 132. Strictly speaking, it was therefore once not a city ​​gate , but an honorary monument .

Hadrian had the city enlarged and new quarters built. The gate was commissioned by the Athens City Council. The name of the architect of the building has not been passed down. There are two inscriptions on the side facing the old town: “This is Athens, once Theseus 'city” and “This is Hadrian's, not Theseus' city” to the new city built under Hadrian.

The pure backdrop character of the building was architecturally new . A Greek architrave structure was placed above the Roman arch as a base . Both were of the Corinthian order . The building is 18 m high, the passage 6.10 m wide. Hadrian's Gate was one of the sights of the city in antiquity , along with buildings such as the Tower of the Winds or the Lysicrates Monument . Today the Odos Amalias passes the gate, access is only possible via the archaeological site of the Olympieion .

Because of the similarity, a building in Ephesus has also been called Hadrian's Gate since 1903.

  • Hadrian's Gate as a south-eastern city gate until the late 18th century

  • The gate today, view to the south (out of town)

  • The gate today, looking north

literature

  • Andreas Post: To Hadrian's Gate in Athens. in: Boreas 21/22, 1998/99, ISSN  0344-810X , pp. 171-183
  • Richard Speicher: Southern Greece I. Athens, Attica, Boeotia, Phocis, Phthiotis and Euboea . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1978
  • John Travlos : Image dictionary on the topography of ancient Athens . Wasmuth, Tübingen 1971, pp. 253-257

Web links

Commons : Arch of Hadrian (Athens)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Inscriptiones Graecae II² 5185 . Cf. Anthony Richard Birley: Hadrian: the restless emperor. von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-3656-X , p. 98.
  2. ^ Richard Speich: Southern Greece I. Athens, Attica, Boeotia, Phocis, Phthiotis and Euboea, p. 132
  3. ↑ Dieter Knibbe, Gerhard Langmann, Hilke Thür: Via Sacra Ephesiaca. Volume 2, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-900305-14-5 , p. 94.

Coordinates: 37 ° 58 ′ 12.5 ″  N , 23 ° 43 ′ 55.3 ″  E