Hadrian's Library

Athens Municipality, Greece

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ReferenceKulturenvanteri↗

Hadrian's Library is the fragmentary remains of a monumental structure commissioned by Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 132 on the north side of the Athenian Acropolis. Designed in the Roman forum style, the building featured a single entrance framed by a Corinthian propylon with columns of Karystian marble and Pentelic capitals, opening onto the Roman agora through a columned porch. The complex comprised a high perimeter wall punctuated by recessed niches, an inner colonnaded courtyard with a decorative oblong pool, and a library proper on the eastern side housing papyrus rolls in cupboards and shelves, accompanied by adjoining reading rooms and corner lecture halls. Cipollino and Pentelic marbles adorned the walls alongside paintings, while gilded wood formed the ceilings. Severely damaged during the Herulian invasion of 267, the structure was repaired by prefect Herculius around 407–412 and subsequently absorbed into the Roman city walls. During the Byzantine period, three churches were erected within its bounds—a fifth-century tetraconch, a seventh-century three-aisled basilica, and a twelfth-century cathedral—making it the site of the city's first cathedral, the Megali Panagia.

Movement

ancient Roman architecture

Type: library, building, archaeological site
Materials: Cipollino marble, Pentelic marble
Heritage: archaeological site in Greece
Place: Athens Municipality, Greece

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Location

37.97556, 23.72611