Nashville's Parthenon Built for Centennial
Structure is Only Full-Scale Replica of Greek Parthenon
Jul 30, 2009
In the early days of the United States republic, Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, fancied itself one of the most cultivated frontier cities and began to call itself “The Athens of the South.” Therefore, when Tennessee celebrated its 100th birthday in 1897, a grand centennial fairgrounds spread across acres of parkland on the city’s west side was anchored by a full-scale plaster replica of the original Parthenon, built in 438 B.C. in Athens.
The fair drew 1.8 million visitors, but by 1898 all the temporary structures were gone except for the Parthenon. It had seriously deteriorated by 1920, when the city decided to rebuild the replica in concrete. By 1925 the renovated exterior was complete. The interior reopened in 1931 and housed an art collection donated by insurance executive James M. Cowen, which includes paintings by Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, and other American landscape painters.
The Parthenon provided the iconic backdrop for Robert Altman’s celebrated 1975 film Nashville.
Athena Statue in Nashville’s Parthenon
In the 1980s the city began the process of constructing a monumental statue of Athena, the goddess of wisdom whose statue had once stood in the Greek Parthenon. Although the statue, carved of ivory and gold by the famous sculptor Pheidias, was lost by 400 A.D., clues to what it looked like are found in ancient writings and in remnants of the statue's base in the Athenian Parthenon.
Nashville artist Alan LeQuire won the commission and constructed a 41-foot cement statue of the goddess that was erected inside the Parthenon and unveiled in 1990. The crown of the statue is only 12 inches from the ceiling of the interior of the Parthenon.
The plain white sculpture was covered with gold plate in 2002 and also painted, so that the its current appearance is believed to be quite similar to the monumental statue that dominated the interior of the original.
Parthenon Museum Contains Copies of the Elgin Marbles
Surrounding the statue of Athena are plaster casts of the famous Elgin Marbles, the sculptures which once topped the pediments of the Athenian Parthenon and are now in the British Museum in London.
The museum also has an exhibit of photographs from the 1897 Centennial celebration and a gallery that houses revolving exhibits.
No Straight Lines in the Parthenon
According to the Nashville Parthenon’s Web site, all the original structure’s horizontal elements arch slightly in the center, which is echoed by Nashville’s Parthenon. In addition, the exterior columns incline slightly inward. The deviations from strict mathematical precision are believed to enhance the structure’s visual impact on the human eye.
Visiting the Parthenon in Nashville
The Parthenon is still the centerpiece of 91-acre Centennial Park and is located at 4600 West End Ave., about 1.5 miles from the state Capitol in downtown Nashville and adjacent to the campus of Vanderbilt University. Both the park and the Parthenon are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Parthenon is closed on Mondays all year and on Sundays from September through May.
 |
 |
