105-142

The palace of Pella

• Χρυσοστόμου, Παύλος

The Palace of Pella stands on the central hill of the three which rise to the north of the ancient city. This hill, which slopes gently on its south side and more steeply to the east and west, was fortified on its north side with a strong wall reinforced with towers placed at intervals. The greater part of the hill is occupied by a number of enormous buildings located at a distance of 370 met­ res from the most northerly insulae of the city. The Palace of Pella, standing on the flat top of a hill with a height of 73 metres, ideally orientated to the south, in a grove of trees and on an exceptionally healthy site far from the noise of the city and the marshes of Lake Ludias, is the largest and most monumental of the palaces known to us as seats of royal power and the Macedonian state.The palace complex is aligned E-W in five self-contained groups of build­ ings, each of which consists of two or more structures. They stand on stepped platforms along the S-N and E-W axes, communicating with each other by me - ans of staircases, corridors, colonnades and gates. The rooms inside the buil­ dings are also on different levels, in accordance with the gradient of the ground. In order to construct these huge buildings on a hill whose height va­ ries from S to N and from E to W, the rock was levelled in some places and in others gigantic platforms were built, with landfilling and strong retaining walls, techniques which were also employed in the palaces of Aigae and De- metrias. The buildings in question are: Buildings I and II, which had a single facade with a shared propylum and a Doric colonnade; Buildings IV and V, wh­ ich stand further to the north; ‘Building IIP, which is currently being excavated to the west of Buildings II and IV and stands above a huge incomplete stoa-like structure; the buildings identified to the east of Buildings I and IV and whose precise purpose is not yet known; ‘Building VP with the Small Baths, which is being excavated in the north-west part of the hill, and ‘Building VIP, which has been identified in the west section of the site.The central and most official part of the Palace consisted of four enormous and magnificent buildings each of which had in its interior peristyle court­ yards of various sizes with limestone columns in the Ionic or Doric order, though there were also the wooden pillars which were regarded as necessary. The facade of the central section of the Palace bore a long colonnade (154 m.) in the Doric order with large columns placed on a high crepidoma. This monu­mental colonnade was interrupted, off-centre, by a protruding portico with a length of 16 metres and a double pedimental facade bearing four Doric co­ lumns on the lower level and Ionic columns above, as in the case of the Palace at Aigae. In the core of the Palace, pits and foundations were discovered with finds dating from times before the reign of Philip II. The main building phase of the south section of the Palace core seems to have been in the third quarter of the fourth century BC, as demonstrated by the Doric column capitals on its single facade, which date from a period earlier than that of the Palace of Vergina and close to that of the temples of Zeus at Nemea and of Athena at Tegea. After the time of Philip II, and especially during the reigns of Cassan - der, Antigonus Gonatas and Philip V, the new and greater needs dictated by the expansion of the Macedonian state and the growth in royal power are reflected in the construction around the original core of the Palace of additio­ nal formal or service buildings. Some of the structures of earlier times were demolished to make way for the new buildings or were modified to make them more useful or impressive. A large stoa —like structure of the early Helleni­ stic period, which for reasons unknown to us was never completed, was cover­ ed over early in the reign of Antigonus Gonatas and much of its material was used in the numerous new buildings of the Palace complex.In 168 BC the Palace was stripped of its treasures by Aemilius Paulus, and after that time it ceased to be the seat of royal power. However, its buildings continued to be used for other purposes until the beginning of the first century BC. In the centuries which followed, and down to the middle of our own cen­ tury, the ruins were used as a source of building materials, while during the Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods an important town flourished on the site prior to the construction of the village of Ayii Apostoloi (now Pella) on the east hill in the eighteenth century.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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