Propylaia (Acropolis of Athens)

It is evident from traces left on the extant building that the plan for the Propylaia evolved considerably during its construction, and that the project was ultimately abandoned in an unfinished state.

[4] This was followed shortly after Marathon by a programme of renovation on the Acropolis including the replacement of the gateway with a ceremonial entrance, usually referred to as the Older Propylon, and the refurbishment of the forecourt in front of it.

From the socket for the roof beam and the spur walls on the north and south flanks of the central hall it can be discerned that the original plan was for a much larger building than its final form.

Furthermore, it is evident from the adaption of the stylobate that a stepped platform was added to the interior of the central hall such that the western-most tympanum and roof were raised above the rest of the building.

[12] Whatever the reason it is clear that the project was abandoned in an unfinished state in 432 with the lifting bosses remaining and the surface of the ashlar blocks left undressed.

Alterations to the Propylaia in the classical period were slight,[14] the most significant being the construction of a monumental stairway in pentelic marble built in the reign of Claudius, probably 42 AD, and arranged as a straight flight of steps.

[17] The Propylaia's post-classical history sees it return to a military function beginning with the construction of the Beulé Gate[18] in the late third century AD, perhaps associated with the refortification of Athens in the form of the Post-Herulian Wall.

This conversion must not have taken place before the end of the sixth century, since in all other cases of ancient monuments being converted into Christian churches, there is no evidence of an earlier application of such a process.

This central pathway, which leads through to the plateau, passes under a double row of Ionic columns the capitals of which are orientated north-south, and is axially parallel with the Parthenon.

[30] Nonetheless, a number of freestanding shrines and votives stood in the vicinity of the Propylaia, and have come to be associated with it if only by virtue of Pausanias' description of them and their proximity to the building.

In the east precinct, the bronze statue of Diotrephes, an Athenian general killed in combat in Boeotia during the Peloponnesian War, stood behind the second column from the south.

By Pausanias' time the picture gallery had been in existence for several centuries, so the Hellenistic historian Polemon of Ilion had written a, now lost, book entitled Περὶ τῶν ἐντοῖς Προπυλαίοις πινάκων (On the Panel Paintings in the Propylaia) which might have been an influence on the later writer.

[37] It was John Travlos who first observed that in the placement of its door the chamber resembled Greek banqueting rooms, both the androns of private houses and the larger dining halls associated with sanctuaries.

Demosthenes in his speech Against Androtion 23.13 describes the victors of Salamis as "the men who from the spoils of the barbarians built the Parthenon and Propylaia, and decorated the other temples, things in which we all take a natural pride".

[41] His political rival Aeschines also made laudatory reference to the Propylaia when on the Pnyx he invited the demos to gaze on the gates and recall Salamis.

Le Roy's Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Gréce 1758, and Stuart and Revett's The Antiquities of Athens 1762-1804, but are hampered by the spolia and overbuilding on the structure.

Subsequent studies include Bohn's fundamental work Die Propyläen der Akropolis zu Athen 1882 which summarized the knowledge of the building prior to the archaeological discoveries of 1885-1890; Bundgaard's Mnesicles: A Greek Architect at Work 1957, that examined the building's implications for planning practice; Dinsmoor Jr., The Propylaia I: The Predecessors 1980, a careful study of the predecessors of the Propylaea.

[44] The latter, while an inexact copy, is clearly informed by the Athenian original likely drawing on Le Roy’s work, then the only reference source before the publication of The Antiquities of Athens.

Commissioned by the King of Prussia, the Gate inaugurated the Greek Revival in Germany even though the edifice deviated notably from the canonical Doric form; its frieze ends with a half-metope and its columns have bases.