{"id":1715,"date":"2014-07-28T17:59:30","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T21:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svetanyc.com\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2015-09-29T18:40:15","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T22:40:15","slug":"vergina-and-pella-greece-july-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/192.168.2.119:1984\/svetanyc\/2014\/07\/vergina-and-pella-greece-july-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Vergina and Pella, Greece. July 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 27, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vergina (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Pella deserve to be on the itinerary of everyone who comes to visit the northern part of Greece. Unjustly, Lonely Planet <\/a>dedicates only half a page to both of those places, which I intend to correct. Not only are Vergina and Pella\u00a0rich in historical heritage and archeological sites, but also they have names of Philip II and Alexander the Great written all over them. Welcome to the ancient (Vergina) and slightly younger (Pella) capitals of Macedonia!<\/p>\n

It is a long day trip (700 km) from Ioannina<\/a>, so we left town shortly after breakfast, while D’s family was packing their bags to drive to the beach. Modern village of\u00a0Vergina<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0lies pretty much on the same spot where the ancient town of Aigai (or Aegae) was.\u00a0During the 8th and 7th century BC this area was ruled by Illyrian<\/a> tribes.\u00a0The Argeads<\/a>, an ancient Macedonian royal house led by Perdiccas I<\/a>, fled from Argos<\/a> in approximately 650 BC, expelled Illyrans and established their capital at\u00a0Aigai. It wasn’t a random move, as the Oracle of Delphi prophesied Perdiccas I to build his capital city “where goats led him”, which was exactly in Aegae – “city of goats”.\u00a0From Aigai the Macedonians\u00a0began their predatory activities, subjugating to their realm Pietria to the southeast, Bottiaea to the northwest and Mygdoni to the north.<\/p>\n

When King Archelaos transferred the capital to Pella, in the late 5th century BC, Aigei lost none of its significance. It retained its role as the royal burial ground and received the members of the royal family on the special occasions, such as weddings and funerals, when custom decreed their presence in the old capital.\u00a0For this reason it was here that Philip II<\/a> was attending the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra<\/a> to King Alexander of Epirus<\/a> when he was murdered in the theatre. Philip’s son, young Alexander the Great<\/a>, who was immediately declared the King of Macedon, fulfilled his filial obligation by throwing\u00a0the most lavish funeral ceremony of historic times held in Greece. Laid on an elaborate gold and ivory deathbed wearing his precious golden oak wreath, the king Philip II was surrendered, like a new Hercules, to the funeral pyre.<\/p>\n

Alexander’s death\u00a0adversely affected the city and in 276 BC the Gauls of\u00a0Pyrrhus<\/a> plundered many of the tombs.\u00a0After the overthrow of the Macedonian kingdom by the Romans in 168 BC both old and new capitals were destroyed, the walls pulled down and the palace, theatre and all other buildings burnt down.\u00a0In the 1st century AD a landslide completely destroyed the city, however,\u00a0some parts still remained inhabited. Between the 2nd – 5th centuries AD the population progressively moved out, and all that remained was a small settlement whose name, Palatitsia (palace), was the only indication of its former importance.<\/p>\n

The knowledge and importance of Aigia weren’t loss with time, as many excavations took place here between 1850s and present day. However, it was not till 1977, when the Great Tumulus (mud hill), 13 m high and 100 m in diameter, was discovered by Manolis Andronikos and his team. It contained 4 royal tombs, two of which (II and III) were not looted. Tomb II was proven to belong to Philip II and his wife and Tomb III to Alexander IV, a 14 year old son of Alexander the Great with his wife Roxana<\/a>. Besides the Tumulus, the wider archeological site of ancient city was also\u00a0excavated in Vergina. It contains an impressive palace and the theater where Philip II was assassinated, Sanctuaries of Eukleia and the Mother of the Gods, agora and eleven Macedonian tombs, the extensive prehistorical tumuli cemetery, the Archaic tombs with rich grave goods and the funerary dedicatory inscriptions of Classical and Hellenistic time. We were set for another archeological adventure.<\/p>\n

\"Vergina\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Legend: (1) The Palace, (2) The Theater, (3) The Sanctuary of Eykleia, (4) Public buildings, (5) The Rhomaios Tomb, (6) The Hellenistic house, (7) The Sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods, (8) The Great Tumulus, (9) The Tumuli cemetery, (10) The Tombs of the Bellas farm, (11) The Acropolis.<\/h6>\n

We naturally began at the Great Tumulus<\/a>\u00a0or The Royal Tombs,\u00a0<\/strong>as it’s called\u00a0(p.8 on the map). As I have already mentioned earlier, the Tumulus was discovered in 1977 and the excavations weren’t complete till the 1990s. In 1992, to preserve the site just as it was, museum was built in a form of a large protective shelter in shape and form resembling the original Tumulus with all 4 tombs inside. And today, when you enter the Museum, you walk underneath of the mud hill, equipped with electronic systems and climate control, that literally surrounds the monuments. Entry \u20ac8, photos and videos are strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0061\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I really loved the museum for its likeness to the original mud-hill hosting the cluster of tombs…. oh wait…. it was the original mud-hill! This very clever and orderly exhibition on its own was worth a trip to Greece. The treasures are displayed besides the tombs that contained them, but nothing is as it once was. The modern shell continues to mark the site and protect the tombs, recalling the image of the Great Tumulus but essentially revoking its function, since it is designed to make the monuments accessible to the public, while the ancient tumulus concealed and isolated the houses of the dead from the living. Death transubstantiates. Whatever “died’ and was buried, following the deceased to his\/her grave, whatever for centuries has been locked in earth’s embrace may perhaps one day return to daylight but it will never be the same as it was. Raised on their pedestals, the objects, no longer usable but nevertheless useful, become monuments, fragments of memory, ideas rather than material objects. The finds are conserved, “restored” and exhibited to the public, totally estranged from the original function. The exhibition method is bound to respect their form and character, but it can’t avoid expressing the aesthetics of contemporary viewers, whose ideological needs it addresses.<\/p>\n

In light of these considerations, minimal, timeless forms and modern, neutral materials of the strictest specifications – metal, crystal, dull aluminum, synthetic glass – were chosen. The finest that modern technology has to offer in the field of museography – hermetically sealed, individually climate-controlled metal showcases, optical fibers, metal sound-absorbent panels, electronic control systems – was enlisted to ensure the optimum conditions for protection and ongoing preservation of the site. And all these was done without losing the atmospheric element in a museum, which intends to address both mind and emotions.<\/p>\n

Guided by the expression “excavations brought to light” the curators knew\u00a0that death and oblivion were equivalent to “shadow and the absence of color”, while life and memory correspond to “light and color”. Modern construction enveloped in tones of grey are lost in the dimness; thus was created a world of shadows, where the ancient objects, shining and warm, reign supreme, and where apart from the monuments the only color of royal purple, an allusion to the blood of the royal deceased who haunt the place like the heroes of an ancient tragedy.\u00a0The area in the museum was broken up into multiple spaces, creating the element of surprise that accompanies every visitor and ignites her\/his interest. The darkness that reigns in the museum arouses awe and turns voices into whispers, suggesting the atmosphere in the land of the dead, which it still is.<\/p>\n

\"Museum\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The skein of memory unwinds in the museum through the prescribed course and the sequence of thematic units. At the entrance, the picture of the Great Tumulus and its three-dimensional model provide an overall impression of the site and its monuments. The first unit is devoted to the Macedonians whose grave stones were found in the fill of the Great Tumulus. Immediately following these are the ruins of the Macedonian Tomb (IV),\u00a0<\/em>that may have belonged to Antigonus II Gonatas<\/a>,<\/em> with its four free-standing Doric columns, a monument built in the Early Hellenistic age (300 BC) on the edge of the Royal Tumulus. It was uncovered in 1980 already badly destroyed, however, it was once richly furnished based on\u00a0the few but impressive finds – ivory heads etc.<\/p>\n

Next is the “heroon”<\/em>, an above-ground monument dedicated to the cult of the distinguished dead, and besides it is the cist tomb (I)<\/em> of one of Philip’s seven wives, perhaps Nicesipolis of Pherae<\/a>. Here, pay attention to the frescoes that decorate the tomb’s walls, outstanding among them is the scene of the Abduction of Persephone<\/a> (Kore) by god of the Underworld. The three Moirai, inaccessible and impartial mistresses of fate, the mute pain of Demeter, the mother who though a goddess could not save her daughter from the hands of Hades, the fear in the eyes of the nymph who becomes a witness to the abduction of the defenseless Kore by the Lord of Death, all would initiate you into the mysteries of the Underworld.<\/p>\n

Then well-prepared, you will arrive at the units devoted to Philip II<\/em>, the king whose actions changed the course of Hellenism. In the first area you can see king’s weapons, the utensils employed in his funeral ceremony, the symbols of his authority and the precious bronze household vessels employed for his final bath. The chryselephantine bier was embellished with an ivory relief frieze, an exceptional work of miniature carving. Immediately after, you can descend the “dromos” of Philip’s tomb and admire the 5.60 m long frescoes depicting the royal hunt, a work with nothing to envy the creation of the great Renaissance masters. In the antechamber is another burial of a young woman, possible Philip’s wife, Cleopatra Eurydice<\/a> or Meda of Odessos<\/a>, who by tradition sacrificed herself at the funeral. Her bones were wrapped in cloth of gold and deposited in a gold larnax. Another chryselephantine bier completed the rich furnishing of the tomb, while the precious gold wreaths and diadems bear witness to the inordinate wealth of the dead. The museum was virtually empty and when I descended to the bottom of the tomb, there was this aery feeling that I wasn’t alone, but in fact I was! I am not a strong believer in ghosts and extraterrestrials, but I swear, there was something “strange” about this tomb.<\/p>\n

The next stop is the showcase with the remains of the funerary pyre that were found thrown on the vaults of the tomb, irrefutable evidence of the deceased’s identity. Pay attention to the large gold larnax found inside the marble sarcophagus inside the tomb. The dead king’s bones were places in the precious casket after the cremation. The lid is decorated with the large sixteen-rayed star (Vergina Sun symbol<\/a>), while on the sides are bands of lily, palmette and rosette ornaments.<\/p>\n

Then, we proceed to the heart of the exhibition, devoted to the heroized Philip II. Here, among the gold chests and wreaths, the splendid symposium utensils and the precious gold and ivory banquet couches, stands as a trophy to memory his “resurrected” gold-trimmed armor. Worthy of an Achilles this armor, perhaps that which Philip wore when he was proclaimed leader of all the Greeks, is marking with the sheen of gold and ivory the shape of his absence. It is a pretty remarkable tomb and a collection of items, considering that the funeral was done in a rush.<\/p>\n

The following Prince’s Tomb (#III) <\/em>is devoted to Alexander IV, the son of Alexander the Great who met a premature death, and who was buried in the shadow of his glorious forebear after 310 BC. The tomb was untouched by the looters, Alexander’s IV bones were kept in a silver urn (hydria), crowned by a gold wreath and placed upon a stone podium. A narrow frieze with a subject of a chariot race, painted in lovely colors, decorates the interior walls of the antechamber. The exhibition closes where it began, with a series of grave stones and the pictures of Manolis Andronikos, a man who brought the treasures to light.<\/p>\n

On the map that I attached earlier, there are many more archeological sites\u00a0in Vergina, some of them, like Palace and the Ancient Theater, are accessible to visitors and most are not. Using the map, we drove to all of them but unfortunately, both, palace and theater were fenced out and closed. However, for those who are planning to visit Vergina I would mention a few interesting facts about some of its sites.<\/p>\n

The Palace of Vergina <\/strong>(p.1) is a large urban complex that includes the theater, the agora with the Sanctuary of Eukleia and perhaps other buildings. It was the first monument recognized in the area in the mid 19th century and it occupies an area of about 1 ha (104.5 m by 88.50 m). The architecture of the palace essentially reproduces that of the ancient Greek house with the central peristyle court surrounded by four large Doric porticoes. On the south side are huge rooms – the formal halls of the palace where the famous Macedonian drinking parties (symposia) were held. Rooms on the west side served as luxury accommodations to not only the royal family but to their guests, friends\u00a0and warriors. On the northern side of the palace ran a long veranda, a special feature unprecedented in the architecture of the Greek house, from where the king and his entourage could survey the city and plains as far as the eye could see. Walls and architectural members, all worked with stunning accuracy, were covered by the highest-quality marble stucco. Thousands of tiles and decorated antefixes of exceptionally fine quality, hundreds of square meters of marble inlays and mosaics, costly pigments, bronze and every kin on luxury material were enlisted to create a whole befitting the ruler’s ambition. Interestingly, the Pythagorean golden triangle (3:4:5) and the enigmatic sequence of “Platonic” numbers (1,2,3,4,9,8,27) determined the alignments of the building, while the number\u00a0\"\\phi\"\u00a0(1.61), “the golden ratio” was the “common mean” holding together this fascinating structure, designed for a Pythagorean ruler. It was a building where nothing was left to chance, in which even the smallest detail obeyed the magic of harmony arising from the world of Pythagoras to inspire the golden rule.\u00a0The palace is considered to be not only the biggest but also, together with the Parthenon, the most significant building of Classical Greece, it would become a model for all the palace complexes of the Hellenistic world and beyond. Recent archeological research has shown that the palace must have been built together with the theater in 359-336 BC. Some changes were made at the later days and it was finally abandoned in the 2nd century BC, when the Romans assumed sovereignty.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0070\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The ancient theater <\/strong>(p.2)\u00a0<\/strong>was discovered in 1982 at the base of the large palace terrace, which suggested that the two buildings were conceived as a single complex. That would also explain the odd choice of the site for the theater – its\u00a0cavea facing north, rests against the hillside only on its east part. It meant that only the seats of the first row around the orchestra were of stone, while the rest were formed with the help of wooden bleachers, since there was no rock to support the construction. It was the place where the dramatic even of Philip’s II assassination on his daughter’s wedding day took place in 336 BC.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0066\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Other sites that are worth a peek from the fence (if you find them) are:<\/p>\n