Athens - Library of Hadrian (Closed Temporarily)

Parallel to the Roman Agora, only 16m/50ft away, is another complex of similar character but different function - the Library of Hadrian, founded by the emperor of that name after A.D. 132. This was a colonnaded court measuring 122 by 82m/400 by 270ft, with exedrae (semicircular recesses) in the external walls.

The entrance was on the west side, and part of this, richly decorated with Corinthian columns and a four-column propylon, has been preserved.

It faces onto Areos Street, which runs south from Monastiráki Square past the old Sindrivani Mosque (now housing the Museum of Ceramics). New excavations are in progress here. The modern entrance to the site is at the east end, in Eólou Street.

The central room in the east range of buildings, much of which is still standing, was the actual library, and the niches in which the book rolls were kept can still be recognized.

The building as a whole was not designed, like the Roman Agora, for business purposes, and the spacious courtyard was laid out as a garden, with a pool in the middle. The columns and other architectural fragments now to be seen in the courtyard came from the Megáli Panayía church, which was built in the fifth C. on the site of the original pool.