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The stadium was built by the rethor Lycurgos, the governor of the
city, in the 330 B.C., for the greatest festivities of Athens,
the Panathenaea. The location was chosen in a valley, at the foot
of Ardhitos Hill, and next to the river Ilissos, which is now covered.
The land belonged to Deinias, who donated it to the city of Athens.
The competition area was fenced by a low stone wall and the stadium
had wooden seats, reserved to the politicians, priests and guests
of honour.
Later, in 140-144 A.D., Herodes Atticus undertook the restoration
of the stadium and installed the pentelic marble seats. Having a
capacity of 50 000 spectators., it was a constuction of rare beauty,
and ancient traveller Pausanias described it as "unique in
the entire world". To improve acces to the stadium, Herodes
built a three-arched bridge over the river Ilissos, which was demolished
in 1774.
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During the Turkish occupation, the stadium was
abandoned, the marbles were used for building construction or were
turned into mortar. Some marbles were saved and were discovered
later, by architect Ernst Ziller, during the excavations that took
place betwwen 1869-1870.
The International Sports Convention decided, in 1894, to revive
the ancient Olympic Games and symbolically selected the city of
Athens to host the first modern Olympiad. The plans for the construction
of a stadium were assigned to the architect Anastassios Metaxas
and the project was financed by Georgios Averoff, a Greek who lived
in Alexandria, Egypt. The reconstructed stadium, also called "Kalimarmaro",
meaning "of fine marble", became one of the jewels of
Athens.
In 1896,the Panathenean Stadium, or "Panathinaiko Stadio",
meaning in Greek "the stadium of all Athenians", was used
for the first edition of Olympic Games of modern times.
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