Architecture in Ancient Greece
The architecture of ancient Greece is famous throughout the modern world and still influences many buildings today. Before the 6th century BCE, buildings were made of mud-brick, wood or clay and besides for a few ground plans, nothing survives of them so there nature is little understood. From around 600BCE, stone started to be used as the main building material for significant buildings, of which there were five main types; religious, civic, funerary, recreational and domestic.
Religious buildings, especially temples have survived the ages in the greatest numbers so are the best known type of building. Most were rectangular and made from lime stone or tufa cut into large blocks and decorated with marble. As marble was so expensive and difficult to transport, only the grandest of architecture was structurally made from it in the Classical Period, such as the Parthenon in Athens.
The rectangular building was surrounded by columns on all sides (peripteral) like at the Parthenon or sometimes just at the front and the rear (amphiprostyle) such as the Temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis in Athens. Roofs were usually made from timber beams covered with overlapping tiles made from terra cotta or sometimes marble. The roof would be triangular and filled with sculptural decoration at the front and rear and more sculptures were placed between the roof and tops of the columns, although none of these sculptures survive today.
Other forms of architecture prominent in Greek society were the fountain house, where water was collected from a public fountain within, and the stoa, which was a long narrow hall open on one side and filled with shops, situated in the town's agoras (commercial areas). The stoa of Attalus in Athens can be visited and has been completely restored and also contains a gymnasium, a peripherally enclosed space that acted as a social centre for men where they could exercise and take part in athletic contests.
The bouleuterion or council chamber was another form of public building that was used as a court house and a meeting hall for the council. They are known to have been constructed with rows of columns inside to hold the roof up but no examples of bouleuterion have survived.
The theatre was another form of building common to every Greek town and they served the dual purpose of being public meeting places and places where dramatic performances were staged for entertainment. Usually situated on a hillside just outside the town, they had rows of tiered seating arranged in a semi-circle around the stage. Some of these building have survived the centuries in good condition, the most famous of which is the one at Epidaurus.
There were two main styles of architecture in ancient Greece, the 'Doric' and the 'Ionic', so named because it was believed they came from the Greek Dorian and Ionian people of the 'Dark Ages', though this is likely to be untrue. While the Doric was more formal and austere, the Ionic was more of a decorative form. Most of the surviving buildings are Doric such as the Parthenon and the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens but good examples of the Ionic also survive such as the small temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis.