Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Stoa of Attalos
The Stoa of Attalos originally served as a 2nd-century BC shopping mall. Both
arcades were divided into shops, and the cool marble-pillared space was a pop-
ular place for wealthy Athenians to meet and gossip. Through decades of ex-
cavations, the Agora has become recognized as one of Greece's most important
sites, yielding finds precious for their artistic quality and ability to tell import-
ant stories about political and cultural life in the first democracy. In the 1950s,
the American School of Archaeology reconstructed the Stoa and converted the
building into a museum to display finds from the site. Most of the museum's ex-
hibits are closely connected with the development of democracy in Athens. Out-
side, in the marble passage, are displayed statues that once adorned the temples
in the marketplace.
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