Propylaea of Athens

The Propylaea form the monumental gateway to the Athenian Acropolis and were built between 437 and 432 BC as part of Pericles' building programme. The architect Mnesicles, previously unknown, combined Doric outer porches with an Ionic inner axis and worked in Pentelic marble offset by black Eleusinian limestone string courses. The structure was never finished: the start of the Peloponnesian War in 431 drained funds, and the unrealised attachment points for planned wings are still visible on the west flank. To the north, the Pinakotheke jutted out as one of the earliest recorded picture galleries of antiquity. The building later served as a Byzantine bishop's seat, Frankish palace and Ottoman gunpowder store; a lightning strike in 1656 blew up large parts. Today steel walkways guide visitors of the World Heritage site through it on the way to the Parthenon.