Olympieion: One of the oldest sanctuaries in Athens

The Temple of Olympian Zeus, among the largest in antiquity, began construction around 515 BC. According to Aristotle, its erection by the Peisistratids served the aims of tyranny, providing “occupation and poverty for the ruled”. It was completed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 131–132 AD, “as a great contest with time,” as Philostratus records.

The completion of the temple – perhaps one of Hadrian’s most important contributions – reflects the love and vision of the philhellene emperor for Athens, a city emblematic for its long history and culture, which he sought to promote as a Panhellenic center.

Hadrian’s temple, in the Corinthian order and built of Pentelic marble, measured 107.89 m in length and 41.11 m in width. It had two rows of twenty columns along its long sides and three rows of eight columns on the short sides, with a total of 104 columns in the peristyle (shaft height: 16.89 m; lower diameter: 1.92 m).

The temple started falling into ruin around the 5th century AD. According to Athenian tradition, preserved by Nikolaos Politis, one column was burned for lime in 1759 by order of the voivode of Athens, Tzistarakis, for the construction of the Koursounou Mosque in today’s Monastiraki Square. Today, only fifteen columns remain standing, with one more lying on the ground, having fallen during a storm in 1852.