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A place of memory and honor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kallimarmaro Panathenaic Stadium is also a place of honor and memory. For those who may have forgotten, it is the oldest operating stadium in the world. It began to be built in 338 BC. and was inaugurated in 329 BC. In the same area is the modern one, which was reconstructed in the 19th century. It is the only one in which three Olympic Games have been held: those of 1896, which marked the revival of the institution, the Mesolympiad of 1906 and the archery competition, as well as the finish of the marathon road in the 2004 event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The ancient stadium was built in the hollow between the hills of Agra and Ardittos by the orator and politician Lycurgus, a financial administrator and responsible for the execution of public works in Athens. The land belonged to Daneas, who granted it to the municipality. The sports games of the Greater Panathenaia were held in the Stadium. Its shape was rectangular with earthen sides and a narrow entrance on the north side. Spectators sat on the dirt, on the slopes of the two hills. The name “stadium” is due to the eponymous unit of length used in antiquity and equivalent to approximately 185 meters. It had no propylon. In front of him flowed Ilissos, now underground. This form of the Stadium was preserved until the 2nd century AD. During the period of Roman rule, it underwent major reconstruction works with white marble. They were financed by the orator and politician Herod, son of Atticus. They lasted four years (140-143 AD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its new form was horseshoe-shaped, with a sling and propylon, a characteristic shape of Roman stadiums. Spectators’ seats were made of Pentelic marble, divided into two sections, with 23 rows of seats. In the center of the sling was a row of luxurious seat-thrones for the officials and judges. Magnificent propylaea were built at the main entrance. The space was decorated with elaborate statues. Also, a three-story marble bridge was built joining the banks of Ilisos. Its capacity reached 50,000 spectators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The “Hole of Fate”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On the east side of the semicircle of the sling, an underground passage led to the back of the Stadium. It was used for entry and exit of contestants and judges, later also of wild beasts, when it came to animal fights that took place during the Roman period. 57 meters long and 4 meters wide, it is the only part of the ancient stadium that is preserved today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Middle Ages, rumors prevailed that within the stoa there were magical powers and that the Three Fates resided. Hence it was called “Hole of Fate”. It is said that rituals and offerings were made there by Athenian women who believed that with the help of “unseen forces” they would find a husband or have a happy family life. On the top of the hill of Ardittos, at the right entrance of the Stadium, the temple of the goddess Tychi was built. The traces of the staircase infrastructure that led to the temple still exist today. At the top is visible an impressive construction of stones and strong mortar 15 meters high. In the small Ionic temple there was the golden elephant statue of the goddess. Its first priestess was Herod’s wife, Regilla.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n To the left of the entrance, in a prominent position on the hill, Herod was buried. On the outer, eastern side of the Stadium there is a particularly elaborate sarcophagus. It was found in 1904 by Andreas Skia. Inside it was a skeleton placed in a pencil urn, while on the surrounding wall a marble pedestal bears the inscription “heroes of Marathon”. Evidence that has convinced some scholars that this is the funerary monument of Herod. After the predominance of Christianity, the area was abandoned and deserted. In 1870 a large part of it was resurfaced in the excavations of Ernesto Chiler. Ten years earlier, however, Evangelos Zappa had organized the Zappa Olympias, as well as national industrial and agricultural exhibitions. Two of the four Zappos Olympiads (1870, 1875) were organized in the Stadium. Zappa wanted to reconstruct it with stone figurines, but the cost was prohibitively high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The current form<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reconstruction was implemented in 1896, on the occasion of the revival of the modern Olympic Games and their first organization in Athens, an idea of \u200b\u200bthe French baron Pierre de Coubertin, which was implemented with the contribution of the Greek scholar Dimitrios Vikelas. However, without the decisive financial contribution of the great benefactor Georgios Averof, these Games would never have taken place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reconstruction plan of the Stadium was drawn up by the architect Anastasios Metaxas. The English specialist, Charles Perry, was called to Athens to shape the track. More than 500 workers worked. White Pentelic marble (in Greek Language marble-“marmaro” and Beauty-“Kalos”) was used, the best. Hence the name “Kallimarmaro”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Games Committee to honor Averof erected a statue, the work of the sculptor Georgios Vroutos, which was placed on the right side of the Stadium entrance. Until the start of the Olympic Games, only the first 4 rows were covered with marble. The rest of the stands were wooden. They were painted white for color uniformity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Work on the Stadium continued after the Games ended. They were completed in 1906, the year of the Middle Olympiad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A particularly elongated structure on top of the hill of Agra, barely visible today, was the building in which the Athenians placed the sacred ship that carried the veil of the goddess Athena during the Panathenaic Procession. A hidden mechanism had been constructed to raise the ship up the hill. Also, where the building of the sanitary facilities is located (bottom of Ardittos) there was an ancient cemetery. This was brought to light by the maintenance work of the Stadium for the 2004 Olympic Games. 31 tombs of various kinds were excavated, dating from the 3rd-4th century AD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Olympic Day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1947 and while the country had just emerged from the Occupation, but was experiencing a devastating Civil War, the EOE (as the Olympic Games Committee was called), in an attempt to stimulate the interest of young people in sports, decided to establish the celebration of the Olympic Day. He set the opening date for the 1896 Games, i.e. April 6 (with the new calendar) and the Panathenaic Stadium was always the venue and recommended to the International Olympic Committee the worldwide establishment of the celebration. The IOC accepted the proposal on its merits, but set the date of celebration on June 23, the day of its establishment in 1894 and the awarding of the first Olympic Games to Athens. The Greek Commission proceeded to implement its original decision. Many celebrations followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gradually, a multitude of demonstration competitions were included in various Olympic sports: athletics, wrestling, boxing, weightlifting, fencing, parade and gymnastic demonstrations with the participation of students from the schools of Attica. Later the institution declined and in 1980 it closed its circle. Since 1896, Kallimarmaro has been the finishing point of the marathons, which take place on the classic route. A route of 42,195 meters, starting in Marathon, in the steps that Pheidippides ran in September 490 BC, from the battlefield to Athens to announce the victory against the Persians. He managed to shout “Nenikikamen” and then, exhausted, fell dead. The first marathon on the classic route took place on Sunday, March 10, 1896. The qualifying and Olympic races followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the latter, on Friday March 29, Louis triumphed. From October 1955 and every two years until 1967, the international marathon on the classic course was established. From 1967 it became annual and was moved to April 6, as part of the Olympic Day celebration. From 1972 the event started to be held twice a year: once in April, once in October. The second provided for the free participation of non-athletes as well. Organizer-precursor of the modern “Grigoris Lambrakis” Athens Classic Marathon, established since 1983.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It stands proudly in the center of Athens, next to Zappeion, on the outskirts of Ardittos hill. A unique monument, a living symbol of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1189,1157],"tags":[6078,3014,146,6076,2751,6077],"class_list":["post-20956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-culture","tag-acropolis","tag-athens","tag-greece","tag-kallimarmaro-panathenaic-stadium","tag-olympic-games","tag-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20961,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20956\/revisions\/20961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/image-97-1024x683.png\")