The Parthenon

1897

Nashville built a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in 1897

The Parthenon in Centennial Park is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece. It was designed by the architect William Crawford Smith and built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.

Athens

The nickname Athens of the South led to a Parthenon at the exposition

Nashville's nickname, the Athens of the South, influenced the choice of the building as the centerpiece of the 1897 Centennial Exposition. Originally built of plaster, wood and brick, it was not meant to be permanent, but the cost of demolishing it and its popularity left it standing.

Concrete

Weather wore down the plaster, and it was rebuilt in concrete from 1920

Weather had caused deterioration of the landmark, and it was rebuilt on the same foundations, in concrete, in a project that started in 1920. The exterior was completed in 1925 and the interior in 1931. The local architect Russell Hart was hired for the reconstruction.

Athena

A statue of Athena Parthenos, 42 feet high, stands in the main hall

In 1982 Alan LeQuire was commissioned to create the statue of Athena Parthenos, a reconstruction of the long-lost original, completed in 1990. She stands 42 feet high and carries a 6-foot-high statue of Nike in her right palm.

42 feetheight of the statue of Athena Parthenos

The marbles

The Treasury Room holds plaster casts of the Parthenon Marbles

The plaster replicas of the Parthenon Marbles in the Treasury Room are direct casts of the original sculptures that adorned the pediments of the Athenian Parthenon, dating to 438 BC. The surviving originals are housed in the British Museum in London and at the Acropolis Museum in Athens.