Propylaea Of The Acropolis Research Paper

The Propylaea of the Acropolis in Athens: The Project of Mnesicles
In roughly 437 B.C., 10 years after the beginning of the construction of the Acropolis and immediately after the Parthenon had been completed, Athens had began construction of a new site for their extremely revered sacred space known as the Acropolis, which was already home to great architectural blunders such as the Parthenon and Erechtheion. The entrance to this very commemorative site is referred to as the Propylaea, which is considered to be the grandest gateway ever created in Greece even though its originally intended design plan was never fully finished. It was initiated to replace the old and rather diminutive Mycenaean propylon already on the west side. Led by the
Athenian leader Pericles, this design project for the final piece of the Acropolis was commissioned to the ancient architect Mnesicles who would eventually go on to build the Erechtheion. Due to a surprising victory in war against the formidable Persian army, the Athenians were experiencing a true sense of pride during this time. Looking for a way to commemorate the greatness of Athens propelled Pericles to build this grand site constructed almost entirely of pentellic marble despite the extremely high costs involved; Pericles intended that the Acropolis should be a symbol of Athenian superiority. However, as a result of Athens getting into a war with Peloponnesian city-states, construction of this site was interrupted around 432 B.C. and remained unfinished.
The Propylaea serves a multitude of functions that legitimizes its importance as an ancient historical site.
Primarily, the Propylaea is meant to be the area of transition between everyday secular life to the sacred space containing Athens’ most ancient and holy shrines such as the Parthenon and Temple of Nike Athena. Along with being a religious site where ceremonial traditions such as religious sacrifices took place, the Propylaea was also used as a museum. This gateway was used for protection as well even though that purpose was less significant in the overall design. This versatility was developed as a result of the gateway’s ability to adapt to various grades since the overall design of the column-filled entrance way infuses multiple characteristics of different building types that would not normally be seen in a regular structure during that time in Greek architecture. Another important aspect of the Propylaea is its asymmetrical nature. The fact that Mnesicles deliberately chose to build this site in such an unconventional way shows its true architectural significance since the builders revered the new Propylaea as an indirect way of commemorating both the Athens victory over Persia, and highlighting the symmetrically perfect nature of the existent Parthenon. Since the Propylaea’s central hall leads a direct path to the Acropolis, Mnesicles wanted to it to follow a similar form of typology with regards to design. In relation to its surrounding structures, the
Propylaea follows a similar architectural form that incorporates the combination of the Doric and ionic orders to construct spatial relationships between sacred buildings and their location in the acropolis. Arguably, the sheer size and impeccable significance of the Propylaea as an entryway and structure makes it the greatest unfinished Greek site in history. The Athenians realized themselves as superior and wanted to portray this attitude through the acropolis in Athens with the construction of its final component, the Propylaea, which would mark the rise of a golden age for an extremely intelligent and progressive society.
This structure physically served as the monumental, 5-door gateway entrance that covered the acropolis’ west façade. However, this monumental structure also relates spatially to the nearby elements in that it was designed not to block the view of the other structures within the acropolis and creates a direct path to each of the corresponding temples or shrine. Although the exact original design has yet to be satisfactorily explained to this day, the Propylaea houses a combination of building types through the incorporation of both Doric and ionic columns that are further used to divide up the interior spaces (Waele, 3). This use of both styles is referred to as attic style. Doric style refers to the mainland architecture whereas Ionian columns are reminiscent of the founder of Athens since he was Ionian. The interior ionic columns are much more slender than their Doric counterparts and portray a lightness to the interior that contrasts with the sturdiness of the exterior facades (Ching, 134). The Propylaea consisted of three units: a long hall aligned west to east that housed the numerous doorways to the Acropolis, and two projecting wings on the west side (Darling, 10). The Propylaea also features a formal logic of Doric columns around the edges of the site with ionic columns filling the interior to separate the space. More specifically though, the two rows of three Doric columns run east and west and then the two rows of three ionic columns are aligned perpendicular to that in the central hall.
This gateway monument had a lot of inspiration from the Parthenon. It was constructed to be the same height and Mnesicles even “incorporated moldings and architectural details that imitated those of the Parthenon” (Darling, 142). Another aspect of design is that the Propylaea is just as wide as the Parthenon is long (Waele, 3). Although some aspects might be similar between the Propylaea and the Parthenon, there are definitely differences that make the Propoylaea architecture distinct from other sites. The fact that the Propylaea of the Athens Acropolis is not symmetrical supports the theory that this structure was built, in part, to help convey the true architectural strength of the Parthenon. By allowing there to be dissimilarities in design, Mnesicles has tried to highlight the idea that the Parthenon is perfect in all its form by emphasizing the idea of asymmetry at a time when that was extremely aberrational.
However, not all of the design was reminiscent of pre-existing sites. Since there was a great challenge in constructing this gateway entrance because of the site’s slope and difficult position, Mnesicles accommodated for these elements through the utilization steps, ramps, different types of columns, and a double roof. This site’s sloping topography actually provided “unique vehicles for Mnesicles’s theories of aesthetics and optical distortion” (Rhodes, 72). The Propylaea is approached by a massive ramp 20 meters wide and 80 meters long (Ching, 134). The overall organization of the structure constitutes somewhat of a π-shape in plan. Moreover, the wings on the west side served their own special functions. Directly diagonally across the Temple of Athena Nike, the Pinacotheca was thought to be the space for a Greek museum. Greeks walked through and as they were going in were able to look at pictures of their ancestors and actually recognize people so that they were able to situate themselves in history. In this northwest wing, they also held a procession twice a year, in which they sacrificed animals and worshiped at the temple of Athena. The southwest wing gave access to the Temple of Athena Nike, which lies outside the sanctuary of the Acropolis, so that one need not pass through the Propylaea to gain entrance to it. Another theory suggests that it was added just to balance the design and give the illusion that the site is symmetrical even though that portion of the Propylaea is slightly smaller than the northwest wing.
Whatever may be the case, the Propylaea by Mnesicles remains an architectural blunder to this day since it has experienced a wide variety of situations that have only displayed how great this work of architecture really is.
It truly is a shame that the Propylaea remained unfinished during its original time though because one could only imagine how grand and magnificent it could have potentially been if fully completed. The fact that the actual final design cannot be explained with full confidence shows that this project was definitely no easy task to accomplish. However, there have been attempts to restore what has been lost due to not only 2,000 years of erosion, but also due to incompetent efforts by past people to revive the physicality of this ancient site. A large problem with restoration though results from the fact that the original unit of measurement as used by the architect remains undetermined (Waele, 3). This makes it hard to predict what the sizes of certain elements will be because there is no definite method of converting the measurements to an already existing scale of units. Nonetheless, the Propylaea has sustained throughout time as an iconic representation of the fusing of two Greek architecture orders most commonly used in the acropolis site to usher in a new era of Athenian prosperity and
freedom.

Works Cited

Ching, Frank, Mark Jarzombek, and Vikramaditya Prakash. A global history of architecture. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011.
Darling, Janina K. Architecture of Greece. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 2004.
"Europa Nostra." Europa Nostra. 2013. 16 Apr. 2013 .
"Propylaea." Ancient History Encyclopedia. 17 Apr. 2013 .
Rhodes, Robin Francis. Architecture and meaning on the Athenian Acropolis. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995.
Waele, Jos De. The Propylaea of the Akropolis in Athens: The project of Mnesikles. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, 1990.