Entrance and foundation stones for the E-W front colonnade, from W, Athens...

South section of New Bouleuterion with Propylon at lower left, from E, Ath...

East side, from S, Athens, New Bouleuterion

Tholos in foreground; New Bouleuterion to left; Metroon to right; Hephaist...

West side of New Bouleuterion at left with Propylon and Tholos to right, f...

North section of Propylon (with Tholos in background), from NE, Athens, Ne...

Context: Athens
Type: Bouleuterion
Summary: Theater-like building; on western side of Agora, just west of the Old Bouleuterion.
Date: 415 BC - 406 BC
Dimensions:

16 m x 22 m.

Region: Attica
Period: Classical


Plan:

A theater with 12 rows of seats, seating capacity of greater than 500.

History:

Housed the Athenian Council (the Boule). The original seats of the New Bouleuterion were probably of wood. The interior has been difficult to reconstruct. Consequently, there are differing views on the direction that the seats faced. Travlos reconstructs them as facing east while Dinsmoor's drawings in Camp show a New Bouleuterion with seats facing south. Camp uses two versions of the actual seating configuration in his book, both drawn by Dinsmoor, one in 1983/84 and one in 1985, the latter is used here to illustrate the New Bouleuterion. Undisputed is that a porch was added ca. 300 B.C. The reconstructions differ according to which seating arrangement one subscribes to; Travlos' reconstruction shows the porch with an open inner colonnade so the people seated could see out. In the Dinsmoor/Camp reconstruction there is no inner colonnade.

Other Bibliography:

Travlos 1971, 191; Agora Guide 1976, 63-64; Camp 1986, 90-91, 117

See Also: Athens, Old Bouleuterion