Greek Architecture
There is not much information available for the early Greek Architecture between the 6th - 8th century. The reason for this is believed to be because in those days the buildings were all made from wood, mud brick or clay. There are just a few ground plans left of these. There are not very many written sources on early architecture and very few descriptions of them. The most common materials used in Greek Architecture were wood, unbaked brick, limestone, and marble. The wood was used to support the roof beams. The unbaked brick was used for the walls, especially in the private homes. The limestone and marble was used for columns, walls, and the upper portions of temples and public buildings. Then terra cotta was used to make roof tiles and ornaments. Metals, such as bronze, were used for the decorative details on the buildings. These materials were used during the Archaic and Classical eras. There were five basic types of buildings. They were religious, civic, domestic, funerary, and recreational.
Somewhere around 600 B. C. The Temple of Hera, located at Olympia, was renovated. The old wooden columns were replaced with stone ones. Other parts of the temple were also renewed until the whole temple was made of stone. After that there were other buildings renovated and from then on the buildings were made from stone. From the 6th century on the buildings were made from stone and some have survived throughout history. The stone buildings with the tiles on the roofs made the buildings much more fireproof.
Most of the information on record about the Greek architecture comes from the 550-500 B. C. Period., the Periclean age (450 - 430 B. C., and the 430 - 400 B. C., or pure classical era. Architecture and art (paintings and sculptures) were not art as we know it. It was only the rich who could hire an architect and a building contractor. Most of the things the lower class Greeks had were for useful purposes. They did not have a lot of pretties, or novelties. They utilized everything they had.
The Parthenon and the Hephaesteum buildings in Athens are two examples which have survived the ages, as well as others. Most of the buildings were rectangular and made of limestone (also called tufa). The limestone was cut into large blocks. Marble was expensive, and still is today. It came from Mt. Pentelicus in Attica and also from some of the islands such as Peros. Transporting these large rock was very difficult and it was used mainly for sculpting., except in the grandest buildings like the Parthenon.
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