ΠΕΛΛΗΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΝ
TO ΑΝΑΚΤΟΡΟ ΤΗΣ ΠΕΛΛΑΣ
- HOME
- ANCIENT PELLA
- THE PALACE
- THE PALACE ENHANCEMENT
- VISIT
- Column 2
- ΤοποθεσίαΠέλλα 58005 Μακεδονία
- MUSEUM OF PELLA
- English
The palace of Pella is a large building complex, formed over a period of years, which covers an area of 75.000 square meters. It was the seat of the royal power of the kingdom of Macedon, was built on a hill north of the city, around 70 m high. This is a strategic place, commanding the entire area, including the city, the port, and, further away, the lagoon and the fertile land that was around. The palace extended over an area of 75.000 square meters and consisted of several building units with a north-south orientation that were founded on consecutive terraces ascending from south to north and from west to east. The units communicated with each other through a system of corridors, porticoes (stoai, sing. stoa) and staircases.
Its plan was formulated through time in order to meet the new needs and the damages caused by natural reasons. The oldest buildings date immediately after the middle of the 4th century BC, 350-330 BC., during the reign of Philip II. Alexander the Great was born in this palace. After his campaign to the East the role of the Macedonian kingdom changed and Pella, the capital, proved to be the one of the major political, economic and cultural centres of the Greek World. The palace grew in size and splendor as it had to be as the centre of a powerful political leadership.
During the reign of Cassander, Pella doubled in size. Monumental buildings and the northern part of the fortification with the royal gate that led to the royal apartments (royal ship) were built in the palace. Macedonia after the repulse of the Gauls in Lysimachia (277 BC) and tried to restore the unity of his state. He managed to strengthen the state and turn Pella into the cultural capital of the kingdom.
The intervention in the palace is so great that it leads us to think that in part, it may be due to the restoration of partial destruction of the palace by an earthquake or other natural cause.
In 168 BC the palace was destroyed, looted, stripped of its wealth and ceased to be the seat of royal power. Its buildings were used until the destruction of the city in the 1st c. e.g. from an earthquake. In the years that followed, during the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods, the ruins of the palace were used to house other activities. For many centuries this building complex offered free building materials for the surrounding settlements.
The Palace of Pella © 2021 – All Rights Reserved