Acropolis - Temples and Sanctuaries

In the sixth century B.C. Peisistratos brought the cult of Artemis to Athens from his home town of Brauron, and a sanctuary dedicated to this Artemis Brauronia was built in the southwest part of the Acropolis, within the Propylaia and the "Pelasgian" wall.

The altar and the cult statue, by Praxiteles, stood in an open courtyard with colonnades on the south and east sides.

The sanctuary was given its final form by Mnesikles when he built the Propylaia.

About 450 B.C. a hall was built immediately adjoining the Brauronion at Acropolis for the safe-keeping of bronze votive offerings and weapons, and after 432 a colonnade was built along the north wall. Adjoining this was a flight of steps hewn from the rock leading up to the Parthenon, originally decked with numerous votive offerings, including a representation of the Trojan Horse.

Among the many sanctuaries which lie within the walls of the Acropolis and have left traces in the limestone of the crag, was one sacred to Athena Hygieia.

Beside the southern column of the east portico of the Propylaia is the semicircular base which once supported a bronze statue of the goddess. Opposite it is the square foundation of the altar. This sanctuary was built following the plague of 429 B.C., in which Pericles numbered among its victims.

Numerous votive tablets found in caves on the northern face of the Acropolis indicate that there was a sanctuary of Eros and Aphrodite here.

In this area (below the Erechtheion to the northeast, outside the walls) stood the "temple of Aphrodite in the gardens" mentioned by Pausanias - to be distinguished from a temple of the same name, but probably of later date, on the Ilissos. This temple could be reached from the Acropolis by a flight of steps still visible northeast of the Erechtheion.

Northeast of the Parthenon and north of the temple of Rome and Augustus is the highest point on the Acropolis, which was occupied by the sanctuary of Zeus Polieus, an open cult precinct (temenos) containing an altar and a stable for the sacrificial animals (Boukoleion). The only remains of the sanctuary are cuttings in the rock.

In 27 B.C. the Romans built, outside the east end of the Parthenon and on its central axis, a circular temple on a square tufa substructure. The roof was borne by nine Ionic columns, with capitals painstakingly modeled on those of the Erechtheion. The temple contained statues of Rome and Augustus, to whom it was dedicated.