Stoa of Attalos

The Stoa of Attalos, built ca. 150 BCE, was commissioned by King Attalos II of Pergamon as a gift to the city of Athens and its inhabitants. The structure was a two-story stoa, or colonnaded hall, built on the eastern side of the ancient Athenian agora. Its external colonnade was in the Doric order on the ground floor and Ionic on the upper floor, while the internal colonnade was Ionic on the ground floor and Pergamene on the upper floor. It served as a commercial and cultural center for several hundreds of years. Attalos’ monument was destroyed during the Herulian sack in 267 CE and its materials were subsequently reused in a fortification wall. Excavations on the site began in the 1930s, and the structure was then entirely reconstructed by the American School of Classical Studies in the 1950s to serve as a museum.