Parthenon

The Parthenon in Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee, is a full-scale replica of the ancient Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Designed by architect William Crawford Smith and built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, it stands today as an art museum and the centerpiece of Centennial Park, a public park just west of downtown Nashville. The structure serves as a monument to what is considered the pinnacle of classical architecture, complete with polychromed decorations that approximate the original colors of the Athenian temple. Its most celebrated interior feature is Alan LeQuire's 1990 re-creation of the Athena Parthenos statue, positioned in the naos as the focal point of the building, just as the original was in ancient Greece.

Nashville's nickname, the "Athens of the South," directly influenced the choice of the Parthenon as the centerpiece of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Major Eugene Castner Lewis, director of the exposition and chief civil engineer for the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad, proposed the reproduction. Originally constructed from plaster, wood, and brick as temporary exhibition architecture, the Parthenon was not intended to survive the exposition. However, its popularity with residents and visitors, combined with the cost of demolition, led the city to preserve it. George Julian Zolnay was employed in 1895 to make models for the ornamentation. Within two decades, weather had caused significant deterioration. Reconstruction in concrete began in 1920 under local architect Russell Hart, with the exterior completed in 1925 and the interior in 1931. This rebuilding was guided by scholarly standards, with archaeologist and Parthenon researcher William Bell Dinsmoor providing significant professional oversight. The project aimed to create a complete and accurate copy of the Athenian original, inside and out, including the replication of subtle architectural refinements such as the curvature of horizontal lines. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2001, the exterior received cleaning and restoration, and the lighting was upgraded to allow the columns to be illuminated in colors different from the facade. The structure has served as a venue for theatrical productions, including the elaborate Spring Pageants of 1913 and 1914, which featured casts of up to 500 performers, chariot races, and spectacular effects.

The Parthenon functions as an art museum with holdings on two levels. The lower level houses a permanent collection of 63 paintings by 19th and 20th century American artists, donated by businessman James M. Cowan between 1927 and 1929. These works span from 1765 to 1926 and include artists such as Benjamin West, Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Thomas Moran, Edwin Blashfield, Emil Carlsen, William Merritt Chase, Ernest Lawson, Francis Murphy, Elihu Vedder, Winslow Homer, James Carroll Beckwith, Ben Foster, and Leonard Ochtman. Additional gallery spaces provide venues for temporary exhibitions by contemporary artists. The main level is dominated by the architectural and sculptural program: the 1990 Athena Parthenos replica, plaster casts of the Parthenon Marbles in the Treasury Room, and polychromed architectural elements throughout. The west vestibule contains plaster casts made by sculptors Leopold Scholz and Belle Kinney, taken directly from the original sculptures now in the British Museum and the Acropolis Museum.

The most significant holding is Alan LeQuire's 1990 reconstruction of the Athena Parthenos statue, commissioned in 1982 as a scholarly reconstruction of the lost original. The statue stands 42 feet (13 meters) high, though some sources note it as 41.10 feet (12.53 meters). Constructed from a mixture of plaster and fiberglass on a steel and aluminum armature, it is covered with more than 8 pounds (3.6 kg) of gold leaf. The goddess is depicted cuirassed and helmeted, carrying a shield on her left arm and a 6-foot-high (1.8 m, or 6.4 feet/1.95 m in some accounts) statue of Nike in her right palm. An equally colossal serpent rears its head between Athena and her shield. The shield itself measures 15 feet (4.57 m) in diameter, ornamented with bas-reliefs depicting the battle between Greeks and Amazons, with the head of Medusa at its center. The interior of the shield is painted with the battle between gods and Titans. The Treasury Room (west room of the main hall) contains plaster replicas of the Parthenon Marbles, direct casts of the original sculptures that adorned the pediments of the Athenian Parthenon in 438 BC. The surviving originals are housed in the British Museum in London and the Acropolis Museum in Athens. The building's two entrances are closed by bronze doors designed by Russell Hart, incorporating bas-reliefs by the Scholzes depicting Athena and Medusa; these doors measure 24 by 6.5 by 1 feet and weigh 16,534.7 pounds (7,500.01 kg).

The Parthenon stands in Centennial Park, a public park just west of downtown Nashville. As a full-scale replica of the Athenian original, the building replicates the Doric temple's proportions and architectural refinements, including the subtle curvature of the stylobate and entablature. The structure was originally built of plaster, wood, and brick, then rebuilt in concrete between 1920 and 1931 on the same foundations. The polychromed decorations were executed as close to the presumed original colors as possible, making this a rare example of a fully colored reconstruction of classical architecture. The naos, or east room of the main hall, houses the Athena Parthenos statue and serves as the building's spiritual and visual center. The Treasury Room, or west room, contains the plaster casts of the Parthenon Marbles. The building's completeness, both exterior and interior, distinguishes it from the ruined state of the Athenian original and serves as a monument to classical architectural achievement.

The Parthenon is owned by the city of Nashville and operated as a public art museum within Centennial Park, accessible just west of downtown. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building serves multiple present roles: as an art museum displaying the Cowan collection and temporary exhibitions; as a monument to classical architecture; and as a performance venue. In summer months, local theater productions use the building as a backdrop for classic Greek plays such as Euripides' Medea and Sophocles' Antigone, performed usually for free on the steps. Other performances, such as Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, have been held inside at the foot of Athena's statue. The Parthenon has also appeared in popular culture, serving as the location for the political rally in Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville, as a backdrop for the battle against the Hydra in the 2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and in the 2000 PBS series Greeks: Crucible of Civilization. The official website is http://www.nashville.gov/Parks-and-Recreation/Parthenon.aspx.