The restoration of Philip II’s palace in Aiges Imathia is expected to be completed at the end of the year

The palace of Philip II in Aiges is completed at the end of 2023, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Culture.

The monument is given to the public with the large peristyle, the propylon and the arcades of the facade restored, the bricklayers rearranged and the mosaics of the huge men preserved, that is, the spaces that hosted the banquets of the Macedonian kings.

After her autopsy Linas Mendoni in the project “Consolidation, maintenance, restoration and enhancement of the palace of the Goats” implemented since 2007, by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Imathia, total budget of 20,000,000 euros, with consecutive approvals, in two NSRF funding periods 2007-2013 and 2014-2020, the minister stated: “The goal of the planning of the projects in Aiges, from the beginning, was the systematic and universal restoration and highlighting of the particularly extensive archaeological site, so that evolve into a huge archaeological park, with modern and high-level infrastructure and services, in order to offer visitors complete, unified and comprehensive knowledge and experience of the history of the city of Aige, its kings and wider Macedonia. The restoration of the palace of Philip II, which will be completed in December, together with the necropolis and the burial cluster of the Temenides, an area of ​​almost 550 acres, which in 2021 will be given to the public, as a visitable tree-planted area, archaeological and naturalistic tour, the Museum of Royal Tombs, the ancient theater, the listed church of Agios Dimitrios, and the Central Museum, which was inaugurated in 2022 by the Prime Minister, make up the Polycentric Museum of the Goats. To this total are added any monuments or parts of the archaeological site that are maintained, so that they can be visited soon”.

The Minister of Culture was given a tour by the Superintendent of Antiquities, Angeliki Kottaridis, discussed with the group of supervisors and gave directions for the study of the best solutions for the access and service of the visitors in the area of ​​the monument, the area of ​​which exceeds 30 acres, the announcement states.

The palace built in the middle of the 4th century. BC, by Philip II, the ‘royal foundation’ of the Goats, the largest building of classical Greece, it was designed so as to coordinate the Agora, the meeting place of the citizens of the Metropolis of Macedonians, with the royal presence and authority. Here, in the mega peristyle of the palace, in the autumn of 336 BC. Alexander was proclaimed king of the Macedonians and the great march began, which transformed the then world into an Ecumene.

The palace of the Goats, absolutely pioneering building for its time, it became a model and an archetype, it experienced thousands of iterations defining, for many centuries, the image of public architecture, in East and West.

Symbol of Macedonian hegemony, the monument was destroyed by the Romans in 148 BC, burned and stoned to disappear from the face of the earth. Now, as its restoration work is completed, it once again harkens back to its original image. Visitors to the archaeological site of Aige, will soon be able to have a vivid image of “the Parthenon of Macedonia” – as Wolfram Hoepfner, one of the greatest scholars of ancient Greek architecture, described the monument – which with much effort, persistence and patience emerges from the oblivion of the ages.

A part, 30m long, of the upper floor of the central part of the facade of the palace, whose restoration in the monument was not possible, for static reasons as the intermediate ancient material was not saved, is displayed rearranged in the Central Museum Building.