Tel. 26240 22742
Open: Apr- Oct 8am- 7pm daily
Nov- Mar 8:30am- 3pm Tue- Sun
10:30am- 5pm Mon
Closed: public holidays
Museum of history of the Olympic Games
Open: Nov- Mar 8:30am- 3pm Mon
12:30pm- 5pm Tue- Sun
Apr- Oct 12pm- 7:30pm Mon
8:30am- 7:30pm Tue- Sun
Olympia Archaeological Site is a site a birthplace of Olympic Games. The best time to visit the site is late spring then the flowers are blooming, early summer or autumn. August is hottest and driest month of the year. The legend states that the first games were initiated in 776 BC by Hercules himself. Games were held till 393 AD then Christian emperor Theodosius I banned them.
Tens of thousands Greeks from all over Greece and its colonies gathered every Olympiad (i.e. every four years) to participate in these prestigious religious and sport event. All hostilities had to stop for period of games between city- states to compete fairly to honor gods. Only men were allowed to compete and watch the games. In fact that is one of the reasons why athletes competed naked. Events included boxing, wrestling, running, chariot races, the discus and javelin throw, broad jump and others. For viewers who wanted to participate in the games pancration was held, an all- out boxing- wrestling match between spectators. Victors were awarded with simple laurel of wild olive and a right to erect a statue in their honor. These statues numbered in thousands. Poets sang songs to honor heroes and hometowns received their victorious athletes with honor and lavish attention.
The main church of Olympia complex is Temple of Zeus where a 40 feet (12 meters) statue of Zeus once stood. Made from marble, ivory, ebony and gold, this wonderful statue was a work of Phidias and was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The fate of the statue is uncertain. Some blame its loss on invading barbarian tribes that stole and vandalized much of the site, stealing gold and anything of value. Others blame it on Byzantine emperor Theodosius I who brought it to Constantinople where it was destroyed by fire in the 5th century. The temple of Zeus finally collapsed about the same time due to earthquakes. Huge drums of the columns are still visible. The workshop where the statue was build by Pheidias was turned into a Basilica.
History
The origins of Olympia are little known. The oldest
evidence of human presence in the area dates back to the 4th
millennium BC. due to the large number of shells found on the
northern slope of the Stadium. In addition, at the southern foot
of Kronio hill, finds have been found that show that the first
sanctuaries and prehistoric cults developed there. For the
period of the 3rd millennium BC, the findings of that period,
found are a large mound in the lower layers of the Peloponnese
(2150-2000 BC) and arched buildings of the settlement (2150-2000
BC).
In the 10th century BC. with 9th century BC. the
sacred space of Altea is formed with the establishment of the
worship of Zeus. During this period, Olympia became a sacred
place that attracted many pilgrims. This dense stream of
visitors is evidenced by the large number of votive offerings
that arrived in Olympia not only from the surrounding area but
also from places in the Peloponnese and Central Greece. In the
8th century the fame of Olympia grew so much that it reached
East and Mesopotamia and as far west as Italy. The year 776 BC
was a very important turning point in the history of Olympia.
where then, according to tradition, the Spartan Lycurgus must
have made an agreement with the king of Elis, Ifitos, for the
worship of Olympia. Part of the agreement was that during the
holidays there would be a truce throughout Greece.
During
the 5th century, the glory of Olympia reached such a point that
politicians, philosophers and artists gathered there because
they found a large audience to spread their ideas. During the
4th century, importance was given to the construction activity
for the improvement of the facilities and the creation of
accommodation for the visitors.
In 393 AD The Byzantine
Emperor Theodosius I ordered the closure of all Greek
sanctuaries without any information as to which specific places
he meant. Nevertheless, in the following years the place
remained very popular. The area later suffered many disasters
due to natural causes and during the 9th century the area was
abandoned and deserted. Over time, it was covered several meters
below the ground with the help of the Kladeos torrent and the
erosion of the soil of Kronio hill.
Archaeological
excavations
The discovery of Olympia is due to the Englishman
Richard Chandler in 1766 but there were no excavations, while
the area was visited, with archaeological interest, by Louis
François Sebastian Fowel (consul of France and envoy of Count
Puévil Souazel and François Pouqueville), William Gell, Charles
Robert Cockerell and William Martin Leake.
On May 10,
1829, a year and a half after the naval battle of Navarino,
French archaeologists, the so-called "Moria Scientific Mission",
led by Leon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (Department of Archeology) and
Guillaume-Abel Bloet (Department of Archeology) dug the site for
the first time. The mission spent six weeks at the archeological
site. Most of the buildings were initially invisible because, as
Abel Blois noted, they must have been covered by a thick layer
of sediment due to the frequent overflows of the Alfeios and
Kladeos rivers. Only a large Doric column was visible. It had
already been spotted by previous travelers because the
inhabitants of the neighboring villages had dug graves there to
release the stone, but no one had given it with certainty to the
temple of Zeus. French archaeologists found parts of the metopes
of the pronaos and the back of the temple of Zeus, which they
transported to France with the permission of the Greek
government of Ioannis Kapodistrias. These findings are still on
display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The painter Amory-Duval
(of the Department of Archeology) gave in his memoirs, Souvenirs
(1829-1830), a personal, direct and accurate testimony of the
events that led to the accurate identification and
identification of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, which was thus
determined for first time.
1875 - 1881
The first major excavation in Olympia began in
1875 funded by the German State. The head of the archeological
expedition was the German archaeologist Ernst Kurtius. Gustav
Hirsfeld, George Troy and Adolf Furtwένngler, who worked with
architects Adolf Betticher, Willem Derpfeld and Richard Bormann,
were also responsible for the excavation.
They excavated
the central part of the sanctuary of Altea, including the Temple
of Zeus, the Temple of Hera, the Register, the Bouleuterion, the
Stoa of the Echo, the Treasures, the Rectorate and the
Palaestra. During these excavations, important finds were found,
among them the Victory of Peony and Hermes of Praxiteles. A
total of 14,000 objects were recorded which were housed in the
Archaeological Museum.
1900 - 1950
More limited
excavations were continued by Derpfeld from 1908 to 1929, but
work was accelerated in 1936 on the occasion of the Berlin
Olympics.
1950 to present
Between 1952 and 1966, Emil
Kunche and Hans Slife continued the 1936 excavations with
architect Alfred Malwich. They excavated the workshop of
Pheidias, the Leonidas and the north wall of the stadium as well
as the southeastern area of the sanctuary. Also in the years
1972 to 1984 Alfred Malvich found data and dates from the
stadium, tombs and the Rector's Office. From 1984 to 1996,
Helmut Kirielais continued the excavations at the Rector's
Office and the Peloponnese, finding information about the
history of the sanctuary. At the same time, research was carried
out on the history of the sanctuary during the Roman Empire,
under the direction of Ulrich Si.