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The Classical Greek Architecture
08-03-2013 13:18The Classical Greek Architecture has born the column supported temples which are identified in three different orders by the distinctive forms of the columns capitals, the Doric order, the Ionic order and the Corinthian order.
The orders in the Classical Architecture are distinguished mainly by their capitals: the Doric order with its plain cushionlike capitals, the Ionic order with its elegant scrollshaped volutes and the Corinthian order, originating from Asia Minor, with its bundled acanthus leaves.
The construction techniques used did not involve mortar in between the joints of the marbles. Instead, the pieces of the columns were joined with wooden piles in the centre. The highly sophisticated architecture in classical times goes along with evolved aesthetics in art and the performing arts like this of theatre. For these reasons the Classical architecture, apart from thriving in sacred temples built for gods, did also a great deal of constructions that served other purposes of daily life like theatres, defensive walls and aqueducts.
The Classical architecture sprang in the fifth century BC in Athens. A wall was built around the city in 479 BC and the famous Long Walls were built to connect the city to the port of Piraeus in the 450’s. On the Acropolis, most of the original buildings had been destroyed by Persian invaders and after the Greek victory against them major building projects were begun. The most famous examples of classical architecture are the temples on the Acropolis: the temple of Parthenon, by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates, Propylaea and probably Erechtheum by Mnesicles.
The Classical Greek architecture was one of the most influential architectural styles in history as it survived throughout the Western world and was much copied by the Romans, was highly appraised by the Renaissance architects and saw a great revival again in the 18th and 19th centuries in Neoclassicism.
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