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Did You Know Nashville Has a Parthenon, and its Big, Bronze Doors Weigh 7.5 Tons Each?

Did You Know Nashville Has a Parthenon, and its Big, Bronze Doors Weigh 7.5 Tons Each?

Nashville has several nicknames. Probably its best known nickname is “Music City USA,” but it’s also sometimes called “the Athens of the South.” In the 1890s, when the city celebrated its centennial, it built an entire village of classically-inspired structures out of wood, intended to look good and last only long enough to get through the celebrations.

But the wooden replica of the famous Athenian Parthenon was very popular and lasted for decades. It was rebuilt of more sturdy concrete materials in the 1930s, and includes two sets of massive bronze double-doors.

Each door is 24 feet tall, one foot thick, and weighs seven-and-a-half tons. The doors are decorated with mythological iconography and Greek motifs.

Join me on a visit to the Nashville parthenon

A black and white photograph looking up at one of the huge bronze doors on Nashville's Parthenon.
A black and white photograph looking up at one of the huge bronze doors on Nashville’s Parthenon.

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Lion head figure on the bronze doors at the Parthenon in Nashville. Photo by moi.
Lion head figure on the bronze doors at the Parthenon in Nashville. Photo by moi.

Buy a fine black and white print of this photograph.


This is Nashville's Parthenon, situated on a low hill in Centennial Park. Inside is housed a spectacular 42 foot statue of Pallas Athena, clad in gold.
This is Nashville’s Parthenon, situated on a low hill in Centennial Park. Inside is housed a spectacular 42 foot statue of Pallas Athena, clad in gold.

Get yourself a print of this photo here


Ring of Serpents, brass door handle at the Parthenon in Nashville
Ring of Serpents, brass door handle at the Parthenon in Nashville

Click here to buy a black and white wall art print of this photo


Check out all of my Nashville photographs here.

Thanks for reading!

Keith

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