Town Planning

With the fall of the Greek Dark Ages (a period of time we know very little about because people did not write things down), life in Ancient Greece began to change: villages grew, they became more powerful and started to form strong trading centers with a self-governing system. These newly formed groups of villages were called city-states or poleis (a polis), political units consisting of a city and its surrounding territory.

Each city-state had its own personality, goals, laws and customs. Each polis had its own form of government. Some were ruled by kings (Corinth); some were governed by a small group of men (Sparta); others experimented with new forms of government (Athens). However, city-states had many things in common: they all believed in the same gods and spoke the same language.

The basic elements of the typical Greek city plan comprise the acropolis, the enclosing city wall, the agora or the market-place, residential districts, one or more leisure and cultural areas, a religious precinct, the harbor and the port, and possibly an industrial district.

Outside a Greek city-state there were cemeteries, or individual tombs, located along the roadsides.

To enter the polis, you had to walk through town gate. The town’s acropolis (from the Greek word “akro” meaning top or high, + “polis” or city) was the building that could be seen from afar. The “upper city” was the place where the inhabitants could go as a place of refuge in times of invasion. Fortified by massive stone walls it was the safest most secure place in town.

Walking along the main road one could get directly to the center or the agora. It was the most essential part of an ancient Greek town, its heart and the meeting place where nearly all aspects of public life are carried out. People came here people to do shopping and business, to worship, or simply socialize. Religious shrines could be found anywhere and everywhere in a Greek town, and temples, elegant buildings with their porches and surrounding colonnades, were a common sight especially in the agora. Everywhere there were statues of heroes, gods, and ordinary (but important) people to catch the eye and inspire reflection.

The boundaries of this large open area at the heart of the city were defined by the public buildings surrounding it. The stoa and the bouleterion defined its edges.

The bouleterion (derives from “boule”, the council of the polis) was used to hold public meetings; the council chamber. It was roofed and had tiers of benches on three sides either rectangular or semicircular in shape.

The stoa, which formed an edge of the agora, was a long and narrow structure that offered shelter from rain and sun. Shops where expensive items could be bought were located in the stoa.

The gymnasion or the stadion was most often built into a hillside or sloped area (often at the outskirts of town) to provide seating for the spectators. It was used for footraces and the young men of the town received here their education both in intellectual matters and in athletics.

In ancient Greece, going to the theater was a celebration of community. The dramas and comedies performed by the actors portrayed moral virtue and vice. The best spot for an open theater was a natural hollow for the central “stage, ” enclosed by slopes where spectator seats were arranged. The wall behind the stage structure was relatively low, so that the audience could, by looking over the actors’ heads, view the entire polis.

The residential districts made up the greatest portion of the town around the agora. They were ordinary, with narrow streets and alleys fronted by modest private homes.

Five of the most powerful Greek city-states were:

· Athens;

· Sparta;

· Corinth;

· Megara;

· Argos.