Thessaloniki: The palace where Alexander the Great was born is inaugurated – Next summer he will receive visitors | HELLAS

Next summer, it is estimated that the palace where Alexander the Great was born in the then coastal Pella will be able to receive visitors.

In this building, part of which was excavated in 1957, when no one knew it was the palace, the king of the Macedonians grew up while in the arena located a short distance from the building, the successor practiced sports with the children of the aristocracy and the enormous swimming pool exercising your body.

“The palace had a public character and in it was the room where the banquets were held, the throne room, if I may use this expression in proportion,” explains to APE – MPE the head of the Ephorato of Antiquities of Pella, Elisavet Tsigarida . She emphasizes that works in the area are currently in full swing, with funding from the NSRF, noting that the site can be visited in the summer of 2021, if all goes well.

The visitor will see in front of him the plan of the palace, on the foundation level, while the objective of the Eforato de Antigüedades is to present a digital tour of the visitor center that is expected to be built in 2023. There you can see the representation Digital not only of the palace where the Macedonian king was born, but of the complex of buildings that consisted of seven great buildings, with inner courtyards, corridors, stairways and galleries that were connected to each other.

The total building of the palaces reaches seventy acres

“The total area is around 70 acres. These dimensions can be understood if we take into account the fact that Pella was then the capital of the Macedonian Kingdom. The palace started smaller, but expanded after the campaign of Alexander the Great. The period between 320 and 250 BC was a time of great prosperity for Macedonia, while the wealth of the palace was also known. We do not forget it throughout the third and second BC. In the century In the 20th century, Pella was the center of the Kingdom of Macedonia, one of the most important states of the time, “says Ms. Tsigarida.

After all, these were the reasons why the Romans sacked the palace when the Macedonians were defeated in 168 BC. C. came directly to Pella. According to the director of the Ephoratic of Antiquities, “the Romans did not destroy the city but looted the palace, where of course there were treasures. They even took the king and his family as slaves in Rome, showing their triumph. The fate of the royal family was very hard while the palace was no longer in use. However, the city continued to exist during Roman times, as the Egnatia Highway, a highway connecting East and West, ran through it.

In the footsteps of the port of Pella

Meanwhile, the archaeologists from the Eforato de Antigüedades follow the trail of the coastline of the port of Pella, where the Macedonians decided to move their new capital, leaving Aigai. And today there may be no sea in Pella, but sources mention its coastal character. In the following years, the landscape changed in the area and due to the alluvium of the rivers that carried transported materials, the protected Gulf of Pella turned into a lagoon that later became Lake Giannitsa and finally dried up.

“We work for two years and at the same time we do surface research like an ephorate. Archaeologists walk all the way to see where we have a collection of finds, islets and other clues that give us evidence. It is an investigation that does not cost, but we provides valuable details. At the same time, we are collaborating with expert scientists who, with the necessary equipment, are proceeding with the geophysical survey “, comments Ms. Tsigarida. With this method, as she points out, which has limited costs in relation to the excavation, the machines scan the terrain and can detect the existence of buried antiquities and where they are located, without the need for large-scale expropriations.

Archaeologists have already located the coastline of the port of Pella and the islet of Fakos that was opposite and had a wall. Now they are trying to understand what happened in the first years of the founding of the city at the beginning of the 5th century and the years in which it functioned as a port. For this specific function, the head of the Ephorate of Antiquities points out that Alexander the Great’s campaign may have started from the port of Amphipolis, but many of the ships of the Macedonian fleet were built at the port of Pella. Most of the foreign embassies from other areas were also welcomed there, while the role of the port in the commercial life of the city and the development of the pottery for which Pella became very famous was also important.

More information on the Pella coastal area, its urban fabric, its wall and monuments is expected to emerge from the research program expected to begin in early 2021.

Photos: ΑΠΕ – ΜΠΕ