Temple of Hephaestus: The Best Preserved Temple in Athens

The Story of the Temple of Hephaestus

While the Acropolis towered above them, the people of ancient Athens spent their days in the Agora, the bustling marketplace and civic heart of the city. On the hill of Agoraios Kolonos at its western edge, surrounded by the workshops of bronze casters and potters, the Athenians built a temple to Hephaestus, god of fire, forges and craftsmanship. It was a fitting choice, since the neighborhood rang with the sound of hammers and the smoke of furnaces.

Work on the temple began around 449 BC, a few years before the Parthenon, but it was not finished until about 415 BC. It is a classic Doric temple of Pentelic marble, with 6 columns across each end and 13 along each side. Its architect is unknown, although many scholars believe the same designer was responsible for the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion. Inside stood bronze statues of Hephaestus and Athena, made by the sculptor Alcamenes. The two gods were honored together because both were patrons of arts and crafts in Athens.

For centuries the building was wrongly known as the Theseion, or Temple of Theseus, and many Athenians still call it that today. The confusion came from its sculptures. Its carved metopes show the labors of Heracles and the adventures of Theseus, the great hero of Athens, who fought monsters and bandits on his journey to the city. Early travelers assumed a temple decorated with his deeds must be his, and the name stuck to the temple and to the surrounding neighborhood, Thissio.

The sculptures were only part of the story. Excavations around the temple found rows of ancient planting pits cut into the rock, showing that in the Hellenistic period a formal garden of shrubs and trees surrounded the building. In the 20th century archaeologists replanted the area with myrtle, pomegranate and laurel, so today the temple stands once again among greenery, a rare sight in the dusty ruins of an ancient city.

The main reason the Temple of Hephaestus survived so well is that it never stopped being used. In the Byzantine era it was converted into a church dedicated to Saint George, and the Christians replaced the inner walls and added a vaulted roof that still protects the building. That roof is why it is the only ancient temple in Athens that still has a covering over its interior.

When Greece became independent, the church hosted a ceremony welcoming King Otto to Athens in 1834, which turned out to be its final service. During the 19th century the building also served as a burial place for a number of Protestant Europeans who died in Athens, and later as a museum. The American School of Classical Studies began excavating the Agora in the 1930s, and today the temple is protected as one of the jewels of the Ancient Agora archaeological site.

Visiting the Temple of Hephaestus is one of the quiet pleasures of Athens. From the Agora, a short path leads up through the gardens to the temple, where you can walk around all four sides and look up at its columns and the faded carvings of Theseus and Heracles. The views take in the Acropolis, the rebuilt Stoa of Attalos and the busy streets of Monastiraki. Come in the late afternoon, when the marble glows golden and the crowds of the Acropolis feel far away.