Hadrian-Library

The Library of Hadrian is located to the north and a few metres away from the Roman Agora. Constructed by the philhellene Emperor Hadrian around 132 CE, it was intended to house the city’s library and public archives, following the model of the Library of Alexandria. This ambitious cultural project was part of Hadrian’s building program for the revival of the Greek culture and the upgrading of Athens as a major artistic and educational centre of the Greco-Roman world. Moreover, the resemblance between this monumental structure and the Roman Agora, their shared orientation, and their close proximity, contribute to the formation of a nucleus for the city’s public life.

The Library of Hadrian is a luxurious, peristyle building of rectangular plan, measuring 122 by 82 metres, with a central open-air courtyard surrounded by four porticos. The peristyle had a total of 100 columns made of Phrygian marble and in the large courtyard, which was paved with slabs, was a large cistern. The entrance to the building was through a propylon with four Corinthian columns of Phrygian marble on its western side. The facade on the western side was made of Pentelic marble and in front of it, on either side of the propylon, were seven Corinthian columns of Karystian marble. It is believed that statues adorned the top of these columns.

On the east side of the structure, the two-story central building housed the library. The walls were fitted with niches containing wooden cabinets for the storage of books. Another theory suggests that this room was dedicated to imperial worship, without ruling out the possibility of the two functions coexisting. Two rooms on the northeast and northwest sides had marble seats in a curved, amphitheatrical arrangement and served as lecture halls. A different view suggests that these amphitheatres functioned as Bouleuteria for the meetings of the Panhellenium, the confederation of Greek cities founded by Hadrian. The building also had other rooms that served as reading rooms, while other chambers were likely spaces for study and teaching.

The Library was destroyed during the raid of the Heruli in Athens in 267 CE. Shortly afterwards, with the construction of the Late Roman wall, part of it was incorporated into the wall. In the early years of the 5th century, repairs were made to the peristyle and the eastern chambers by the Prefect of Illyricum Herculius, whose statue was erected to the left of the propylon. It is probable that at that time, on the site of the central cistern, a tetraconch building, possibly the first Christian church in Athens, was constructed. In the following century, a three-aisled basilica – that was destroyed by a fire in the 11th century – was built on the site. In its place, a single-aisle basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary, serving as the first metropolis of Athens, was constructed in the 12th century. During the same period, another church was built in the northern part of the propylon, dedicated to the Hagioi Asomatoi (Incorporeal Saints or Angels). In the years of the Ottoman occupation, the area around the Library and the Roman Agora housed administrative buildings surrounded by houses, workshops, shops, churches and mosques. The city’s market was also situated there, with the traders allocated according to their products: the fish market was inside the Library, while the vegetable market was situated outside the western facade. Following the establishment of the Greek state, the space was cleared from the fillings and later buildings, and excavations began for the study and promotion of the monument.