The Palace - Architectural phases
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.
Palace of Pella. Aerial photo 2016.
Marble rainwater spout in the shape of a lion’s head from the Royal Gate of the palace. NE of the palace is located a monumental gate with three openings in an equal number of spaces, which projects transversely to the wall in the form of a tower. It is located just north of Building IV, the royal apartments, and is the so -called ”VASILEIOS KARAVOS-royal ship", the gate that the king used to go straight to his apartments.
Doric capital from the western portico of the monumental entrance (Propylon). Τhird quarter of the 4th cent. BC. Archaeological Museum of Pella.
Aerial view of the monumental entrance and Building I during the restoration. The stylobate (platform for the columns) and the rooms of the east portico of the propylon.
Aerial view of Building I during the restoration. From NE.
Rooms of the southern stoa (portico) of Building I after the restoration. View from SW.
Aerial view of Building I (northern and central part) during the restoration. From NW.
Aerial view of the andron (banquet hall) , the eastern apse and the central courtyard of Building I during the restoration. View from NW.
Aerial view of Building Ι during the restoration. From N.
Aerial view of Pella
Plan of ancient Pella. Late 4th –early 3rd century BC.
Stamped roof tile with the word VASILIKOS (of Pella). Archaeological Museum of Pella
Archaeological Site of Pella. Aerial view. It includes part of the residential sector of the city, and in particular, pottery workshops, public baths, the so-called houses of “Dionysus”, “The Abduction of Helen”, “The mortars”, “Poseidon”, the Agora (market place), the sanctuaries of the Mother of Gods and Aphrodite, Darron’s, as well as part of the monumental road that connected the city to the Palace. The whole ancient city expanded in about 4.000.000 sq. m.
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