Classical Greek architecture is represented, fundamentally, by temples, as it developed around sanctuaries, the main ones being those of Olympia, Delphi "Temple of Apollo (Delphi)"), Athens, Eleusis, Delos, Epidaurus, Miletus, Ephesus and Selinunte. The standard format of Greek public buildings is known through surviving examples such as the Parthenon and the Hephaestion of Athens "Hephaestion (temple)"), the Paestum group, the temple complex of Selinunte and the sanctuaries of Agrigento.
The temple was the best known and most common form of Greek public architecture, but it did not fulfill the same functions as a modern church. The altar was in the open air in the temenos, often directly in front of the temple. The temples served as repositories of treasures associated with the cult of the god to whom they were dedicated, as a place where a cult image remained, sometimes of great antiquity, but often since the time of Phidias it was also a great work of art. The temple was a site for devotees to deposit their votive offerings, such as statues, helmets and weapons. The inner room of the temple, the *cella "Cella (architecture)"), thus served mainly as a vault and a pantry. Since it was not designed to house the faithful, it did not need to be large, nor did it need to elevate them. They were designed to be seen from the outside.
The primitive temple of the centuries and a. C. is made of brick and wood. An example is the temple of Apollo in Corinth which, despite being built in stone, gives off an impression of archaism with the robust columns, very close to each other. Most of the buildings were made of limestone or calcareous tuff, which Greece has in abundance, which was cut into large blocks and prepared. Marble was an expensive building material in Greece: high-quality marble only came from Mount Pentelicus in Attica and some islands such as Paros, and transporting it in large blocks was difficult. It was used mainly for sculptural decoration, not for structure, except in very important buildings of the classical period such as the Parthenon.
The temple may have had its origin in the mégaron, the rectangular room preceded by a portico of columns "Column (Architecture)") (stylos) existing in the Mycenaean house, and which was the most important room of the Greek house and sanctuary of the family gods, as described by Vitruvius. In invasions and wars, the winners demolished the palace of the defeated king, but respected the mégaron since it was the house of the god of the region. Thus, the oldest temple was the in antis, which has all the appearance of being a room that has lost the house around it.
They are architraved constructions that stand on a platform with steps (krepis or krepidoma), the last step being called a stylobate.
The final plan of the Greek temple consisted of a room called cella "Cella (architecture)"),[6] a rectangular interior space, which constitutes the core of the construction. It has only one opening, the door, without windows. Sometimes the temple has two cellas, with the doors on the main facades, the shortest, and in this case each cella is usually dedicated to a different divinity. In front of the cella was the pronaos or portico of columns.
To the temple configured in this way, columns were added in front, behind or even surrounding it on all sides. Depending on how the columns are placed, the temple is called differently: in antis, which extends the side walls of the cella towards the façade, closing the vestibule on the sides. The prostyle temple is the one that had, in addition to the two joint columns, two others in front of the angular pilasters, which, in short, presented four columns on the main façade; He is considered the second species among the ancients. Amphiprostyle is the building with a portico and columns on two of its facades, that is, on the front and the back, which sometimes had two cella, one towards each end; An example is the small temple of Athena Nike. The classic temple surrounded by columns that leaves a path between them and the wall is called peripteral, that is, one with columns around the entire perimeter; An example of a peripteral temple is the Parthenon. Finally, diptera is the name given to the temple surrounded by a double row of columns.
They almost always had an even number of columns on the main façades (the shortest), and depending on the number of columns they are called differently: when it has four, tetrastyle; if there are six, hexastyle; if there are eight, octastyle; If there were ten, decastyle and with twelve, dodecastyle. This even number of columns marks the axis with a gap. The columns on the sides were odd, usually double that of the main ones plus one, without marking an axis.
You can also find other names in reference to Greek temples: hypetro meant without a roof; pseudoperipterus was called the one that had columns attached to the sides; and aptero, to the temple without perimeter columns.
In general, the buildings had a rectangular plan, but there are some cases of circular temples (tholos). Monóptero was the name given to the circular temple. The best-known example is Theodore's temple of Athena Prónaya, at Delphi.
The columns supported the entablature on which the two-sloped roof rose. This roof left two triangles on the fronts ("Fronton (architecture)" pediments) whose interior (tympanum "Tympanum (architecture)")) was decorated, generally with sculptures. The Greeks roofed their buildings with wooden beams and covered with terracotta and, occasionally, marble tiles. They understood the principles of the masonry arch, but made little use of it, and did not put vaults or domes on their buildings.
Over time, Greek architects, maintaining the main idea, refined the proportions and details of their temples. Many consider that the Parthenon of Athens, by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates, is the temple that best expresses the Greeks' desire for beauty.
In Greek temples the ornaments were limited to pre-established spaces, in accordance with the architectural order of the building. It was decorated on the capitals, the friezes, the pediments and the roof "Cover (construction)"). The base, the architrave and the walls were left smooth.