| World / USA / Tennessee / Nashville, 4 km from center | Coordinates: 36°8'58"N 86°48'48"W |
A full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Athens was built in 1897 in Nashville, Tennessee in the United States, as part of Tennessee's Centennial Exposition. Originally built of plaster, wood, and brick, it was rebuilt in the 1920s with concrete.
Today, the Parthenon, which functions as an art museum, stands as the centerpiece of Centennial Park, a large public park just west of downtown Nashville. Alan LeQuire's 1990 re-creation of the Athena Parthenos statue is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. The building and the Athena Parthenos statues are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian originals. As this building is complete and its decorations have been polychromed (painted in colors) as close to the original as possible, this building is arguably a better representation of what the Athenians would have seen than is the current ruin of the Parthenon on the Acropolis. Nashville is often referred to as "The Athens of the South."
This replica of the original Parthenon in Athens serves as a monument to what is considered the pinnacle of classical architecture. The plaster replicas of the Parthenon Marbles found in the Naos (the east room of the main hall) are direct casts of the original sculptures which adorned the pediments of the Athenian Parthenon, dating back to 438 BCE. The originals of these fragments are housed in the British Museum in London.
In its capacity as an art museum. the Parthenon's permanent collection is a group of 63 paintings by 19th and 20th century American artists donated by James M. Cowan. Additional gallery spaces provide a venue for a variety of temporary shows and exhibits.
In the summertime, local theatre productions use the building as a backdrop for classic Greek plays such as Euripides' Medea and Sophocles' Antigone, performing (usually for free) on the steps of the Parthenon. Other performances, such as Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, have been done inside, at the foot of Athena's statue.
I got married here.
Parthenon (Nashville)-photos on google maps:
wiki.worldflicks.org/parthenon_(nashville).html .
Category: museum
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