The town of Aigai is the ancient first capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia and was discovered in the 19th century near Vergina in northern Greece. The most significant remains are the monumental palace, richly decorated with mosaics and painted stucco, and the cemetery with more than 300 burial mounds, some of which date from the 11th century BC. One of the royal tombs at the Great Tumulus is identified as that of Philip II, who conquered all the Greek cities, paving the way for his son Alexander the Great and the expansion of the Hellenistic world.
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In the middle of the 7th century BC, Perdiccas I, a Dorian from Argos, descended, according to tradition, from the family of Hercules, became king of the Macedonians. Aigai became the birthplace of the Temenids, the dynasty that ruled Macedonia for 3.5 centuries and gave humanity Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, who started from Aigai and changed the history of the Greece and the world.
The royal burials unearthed in the rich necropolis of Aigai bear witness to the prosperity of the city. During the reign of Alexander I (498-454 BC), Aigai became the center of the most important northern Greek state. During the reign of Archelaus (413-399 BC), the court of Aigai was transformed into a refuge for the great artists who honored city life with their presence. The famous painter Zeuxis decorated the king’s new palace and Euripides wrote his last tragedies there.
Aigai
Macedonia and Aigai, however, prospered after the accession to the throne of Philip II, who gathered around him the highest intelligentsia, making his court the matrix of cultural development, as the Athens of Pericles once was. Philip II was the instigator of the vast construction project to renovate Aigai, which resulted in a complete transformation of the city.
During the first half of the 4th century BC, all kinds of political and military developments forced the Macedonian king and his family to stay longer in Pella, the port north of the Thermaic Gulf which quickly developed into a city. However, Aigai continued to be the traditional center, the land where kings chose to build their palaces and bury their dead, the place that hosted all the major sacred ceremonies and urban festivals of the kingdom.
During the summer of 336 BC, Philip II, elected leader and commander of all Greeks, decided to celebrate his omnipotence in Aigai by organizing an unprecedented feast of glory. The moment he entered the theater after the sacred procession, the assassin’s dagger struck him and killed him in front of the gathered crowd. Alexander was proclaimed king after burying his father in the royal necropolis of Aigai in an unprecedented glorious ceremony.
Tomb of King Philip
In the early spring of 334 BC, the young king set out from Aigai on his great campaign which made him ruler of the world. Alexander the Great introduced the Hellenistic world to the new trends and trends that appeared in the environment of Philip II and which laid the foundations for a new world.
World history has been changed, but the ancient seat of royalty has been left behind. Following the fate of the kingdom, the city of Aigai was destroyed after the defeat by the Romans in 168 BC then fell into decline and was gradually forgotten. Until in 1977, Manolis Andronikos excavated the site, restored its name and the history of Macedonia began to be rewritten.
The Aigai archaeological site is protected by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Monument and a Site of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The Aigai site includes the Polycentric Museum, the palace, the city, the acropolis and its surroundings.
By visiting the site’s exhibitions open to the public, you will locate the royal tomb of Philip II, the Virtual Museum of Alexander the Great and the new building of the Polycentric Museum and visit the monuments of the site (palace, royal necropolis of the Temenid dynasty) you will allow us to formulate a rather dynamic vision of the ancient capital of the Macedonian kingdom and, at the same time, to understand its historical significance.
Details:
70 km from Thessaloniki, 8 km southeast of Veria Aigai, Imathia
Such. (+30) 2331.092.347
Open Monday from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (winter hours Tuesday to Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.).
Entrance to archaeological site & museum €12 (€6 in winter) Combined entry: €14 (valid for three days and includes entry to: Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai, Archaeological Museum of Veria and Byzantine Museum of Veria).
Learn more here.
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Photo source: Wikimedia Commons. Copyright : Dimboukas License: CC-BY-SA
Source: greekcitytimes.com
