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The Panathenaic Stadium or Kallimarmaro

Panathenaic Stadium Photos

The Panathenaic Stadium is located on the site of the ancient stadium of Athens, which was rebuilt thanks to the orator Lycurgus in a private space that had been approved for the city by Deinias. The stadium was used for the first time during the celebration of the Great Panathenaia in 330-329 BC; it had the form of a classic ancient Greek stadium and would hold athletic games.

Panathenaic Stadium Photos

In Roman times, the orator and sophist Herodes, son of Atticus, spent much of his enormous assets on public works among them was the total renovation of the stadium. He changed its original shape of a rectangle with the addition of the semicircle that we see today, and installed seats for the spectators made of white Pentelic marble.

Panathenaic Stadium Photos

In the years that followed the stadium was destroyed and the marbles were used as building material. On the occasion of the organization of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and sponsored by a rich Greek benefactor George Averof, stadium was rebuilt from scratch following the form that it had had in the Roman era, again of white Pentelic marble, designed by the architect Anastasios Metaxas. That was the first time that the stadium was named Kallimarmaro (meaning “beautifully marbled”). So it took the form that it has today and we all admire it as one of the finest monuments of Athens.

Panathenaic Stadium Photos