Leonidaion

Ancient Olympia Municipality, Greece

Freely accessible

Public space — no opening hours to check.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

Find out more

The Leonidaion, built around 330 BCE at the southwest edge of the sanctuary of Ancient Olympia, was the largest building on the site and served as lodging for athletes competing in the Olympic Games. Funded and designed by the architect Leonidas of Naxos, it featured a distinctive architectural plan comprising four Ionian colonnades with 138 decorated columns forming a roughly square exterior measuring approximately 80 metres per side, with a central Doric peristyle containing 44 columns arranged twelve to a side. The building remained in use until the late third century CE, when an earthquake destroyed it; its remains were subsequently incorporated into a Late Antique defensive wall constructed to protect the sanctuary from the Herules.