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Messene 296 pictures 11.50 minutes HQ video Messene Ancient Messene lies on the slopes rising up to the summit of Mt. Ithomi, close to the modern village of Mavrommati. The current remains date from the Classical period although the ancient city was a proud, albeit unsuccessful, rival of Sparta even in Archaic times. The Classical city was founded in 370 B.C. by Epaminondas, the dictator of the short-lived Theban hegemony. The city flourished until 395 A.D., when it was destroyed by the Goths. The city is encircled by beautiful walls in pseudo-isodomic masonry (9 kilometers long, 2.5 meters thick and 4.5 meters high). The walls are entirely recognizable and visitors may walk along them on the north side, which is breached by the Arcadian Gate, the most refined example of a fortified city gate in Greek architecture. Flanked by six-meter-wide protective towers, the gate opens onto a perfectly circular area measuring nearly 20 meters across! The curtain wall is interrupted at regular intervals by semicircular and square towers, with fortified sloping access ramps. Stretches of road paved with volcanic basalt and marked by wheel ruts are clearly visible at various points of the vast city area that is still under excavation. The Arcadian Gate The most refined example of a fortified city gate in Greek architecture. Flanked by six-meter wide protective towers, the gate opens onto a perfectly circular area measuring nearly 20 meters across! The curtain wall is interrupted at regular intervals by semicircular and square towers, with fortified sloping access ramps. The Walls The Theater Asclepeion The spectacular sanctuary of Asclepeion lies close to the agora. The sanctuary features remains of the rectangular porticoed courtyard opening on to a large number of late Classical, Hellenistic and Roman chapels. The Odeon The cavea of the Odeon at Messene is well preserved; the building was not used purely for musical events at the festivals in honor of Asklepios but also for meetings of the religious council. Temple and Altar The Doric peripteral temple hexastyle was dedicated to the god of healing and the divinities associated with him (Hygieia, Machaon and Podalirius). In front of the temple stands a large hypaethral (open air) altar for sacrifices. Cult Rooms Propylon Sebasteion Arsinoe Fountain The fountain house of the Agora was named after Arsinoe, daughter of Leukippos (mythical king of Messenia), and mother of Asklepios. Pausanias akso notes that the Arsinoe fountain house received the water from the Klepsydra spring. The building of the fountain includes a cistern of 40 meters long, located at a short distance in front of the rear retaining wall. Between the cistern and the retaining wall was a colonnade of Ionic half columns. A semicircular statue base (exedra) situated at the center of the cistern supported a group of bronze statues. Two more cisterns are located at a slightly lower level and symmetrically placed on each side of a paved court. The facade of the fountain was screened by a Doric colonnade removed during the monument's second constructional phase in the 1^st century A.D. Important evidence on the second phase of the monument is provided by an honorary inscription of the 1^st century A.D. The third and final phase of restoration and reconstruction activities including the addition of two identical podiums on both edges at the front side, is dated to the years of Diocletian (285-305 A.D.). The eastern section of the Arsinoe fountain house remained standing and was used during the early Christian period, as suggested by additional constructions of the upper cistern and a building, possibly a water-mill, added in the 1^st half of the 6^th century A.D. Back to Greece Index