Travel to Greece With These 19 Famous Landmarks of Greek Architecture

This masterpiece of ancient Greek architecture dates back to the 5th century B.C. and was erected as a temple of the Greek goddess Athena Parthenos as part of the Acropolis. The imposing structure features eight columns on the east and west, and 17 columns on its north and south sides (the building measures 101 feet by 228 feet).

Originally a temple of both Zeus and Hera, this ancient place of worship was first constructed from wood and then from limestone in 6 B.C. The temple is an example of Doric architecture and is one of the most important ancient Greek temples. Unfortunately, an earthquake destroyed most of it in early 4 A.C. Today, the Olympic flame is lit at its altar and then carried around the world.

Considered one of the most outstanding architectural achievements in ancient Greece, the awe-inspiring amphitheater at Epidaurus dates back to 4 B.C. and was dedicated to Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine and son of Apollo. The semi-circular stone structure includes two sections of rows, an orchestra, a stage, and impressive acoustics even by today’s standards.

Conceived by two of ancient Greece’s most renowned architects, brothers Trophonius and Agamedes (and according to legend, they were aided by Apollo himself), the temple of Apollo has a very tumultuous history. It had to be rebuilt three times because a fire and then an earthquake kept destroying the Doric structure. The temple was richly decorated with sculptures and was the site of many rituals, including divination.

Built by King Attalos II of Pergamon as a gift to the Athenians, the magnificent Stoa of Attalos served as the main commercial center in Athens for centuries. The two-story structure features columns on both floors, and its walkways were lined with shops. The building that we see today was fully restored in the mid 20th century because the Herulians in 267 A.D. destroyed the original one.

Dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon, the Erechtheion is located on the north side of the Acropolis. Building it was a challenge because the structure had to accommodate the site’s uneven terrain and several sacred shrines in the area. The temple’s most notorious feature is its two porches—one supported by Ionic columns, and another supported by six female statues called caryatids. The original caryatids were moved to the Acropolis Museum to prevent further damage and replaced by replicas.

This classic example of Dorian architecture is one of the best-preserved ancient Greek temples. The architect, who also worked on the Parthenon, designed it with six columns on each end and 13 on the sides. While the structure was originally erected in honor of Athena and Hephaestus, the god of fire, it served as an Orthodox church from 7 to 1834 A.D.

This may be the smallest temple on the Acropolis, but it packs quite the visual punch. It is perched at the edge of a cliff, and, unlike other temples, it only has columns at the front and back but none at the sides. Its columns are made of single blocks of stone as opposed to several drums stacked on one another. The temple of Athena Nike is also known as the “pearl of the Acropolis” and was designed in Ionic style.

Located in the heart of Athens, this massive temple took several centuries to complete. Its elegant Corinthian columns rise almost 56 feet above the ground. While today only a few of them have survived, originally, the temple had a whopping 104 columns topped with elaborate Corinthian capitals carved from marble.

Built in the middle of 5 B.C., this Doric temple was part of a construction boom during Athens’ golden age (the Parthenon and the Temple of Hephaestus were also erected around the same time). In fact, historians have speculated that the tree temples were designed by the same architect based on similarities between the structures.

The Panathenaic Stadium is one of Athens’s most important landmarks. It was built on the site where, for centuries, an ancient stadium hosted sporting competitions. The Panathenaic Stadium is also the venue where the first modern Olympic Games took place in 1896 and where the Olympic flame is brought before it starts its journey around the world.

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The group of monasteries that stand atop Meteora certainly make for a peculiar sighting. They were built during Byzantine times because monks believed they would be closer to God on top of the rocks. The first monastery was built in the 14th century and several more followed in the next couple of hundred years as the monastic community thrived (of the 24 that existed, only six are inhabitable today). The monks carried building materials for the monasteries via long ladders that they, once on top, removed, ensuring that no uninvited guests could reach them.

Located in the second largest city of Greece, Thessaloniki, the White Tower was built by the Ottomans in the 15th century to protect the city from invaders. It later became a prison that was infamous for the many executions that took place in it. When Greece regained control of the city at the beginning of the 20th century, the tower was painted white (hence its name). Now it houses the White Tower Museum dedicated to the history of Thessaloniki.

Spanning more than 215,250 square feet, the Minoan Palace of Knossos in Crete once had approximately 1,300 rooms separated in four wings. The palace’s most notable features are its red columns that, unlike most ancient Greek columns that become narrower at the top, are the opposite—meaning they are wider at the top and smaller at the base.

Legend has it that St. John the Theologian wrote his Gospel and the Book of Revelation on the small island of Pátmos. So at the beginning of the 11th century, a monastery was built on the hillside dedicated to the saint. What’s unique about this Byzantine structure is that it also served as a fortress. In fact, from the outside, it looks more like a castle with its towers and crenellations than a religious building.  The landmark became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

This unfinished temple on the Cycladic island of Naxos is built to face Delos, the neighboring island and the birthplace of Apollo. Lygdamis, who commissioned the project, intended it to be the grandest temple in all of Greece, but after he was overthrown in 506 B.C., and the construction site was abandoned. Today, only a marble rectangular doorway is left on the site, but archaeologists know what the temple was going to look like because its foundations were also found. Lygdamis planned for the structure to measure 181 feet long by 80 feet wide with six Ionic columns at the front and back of the temple and 12 or 13 on the sides.

Greece’s National Archaeological Museum is one of the most important museums in the world because it holds the largest collection of ancient Greek artifacts. The building was completed in 1989 in neoclassical style that incorporates elements of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. Four Ionic-style columns support its grand entrance.

Dubbed the “wonder of the Morea,” Mystras is a small town located in the southeast of the Peloponnese and is one of Greece’s most famous archaeological sites. The town is dominated by the Despots Palace, erected in the 14th century, on the top of a hill. It was considered the second most important palace in the Byzantine Empire after Constantinople.

One of the most notorious neoclassical landmarks in Greece and on the island of Corfu, the Achilleion Palace was built in 1890. Initially, the palace was the vacation home of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who dedicated the building to Achilles. An Ionic colonnade was also added to the structure, and its gardens were decorated with various statues of the great Greek warrior.