The Panathinaiko Stadium, also called Kallimarmaron, is an impressive Athens stadium near the heart of the city, southeast of the Parliament Building and the National Garden.

The Panathinaiko stadium dates back to ancient times, when it was a venue hosting athletic events for the Panathenaic Games. It was originally constructed primarily with wood, receiving an upgrade in 329 BC by the archon Lycurgus when pentelic marble from the mountains north of Athens was used to renovate the stadium.

The name, Kallimarmaron, means “beautifully marbled”. In 140 AD, Herodes Atticus would produce the funds to both enlarge and further renovate the stadium. The Panathinaiko Stadium is just one of the many relics found in Athens that shows the greatness of past societies that have so shaped the world we live in today.

Herodes was a wealthy individual who funded public projects around Greece. Long after Herodes passed, the Panathenaic Stadium would become neglected and remain out of use. That is until excavations and restorations funded by the wealthy Greek businessman, Evangelos Zappas, were carried out at Kallimarmaron in an effort to bring back the Olympic Games.

The stadium, once used to host the Panathenaic Games, was set to become an Athens Olympic Stadium. Versions of the Olympic Games would be held at the stadium in 1870 and 1875. As Olympic fervor grew, another businessman, George Averoff, would fund more renovations to the Kallimarmaron Athens stadium, which would serve as the primary stadium for the Olympic Games in 1896.

The Panathinaiko Stadium saw a return to the glory of its past, when in 2004 it was used once again as an Athens Olympic stadium. Archery events would be hosted here, and it served as the finishing point for the men’s and women’s marathons.