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Great Altar of Pergamon
Nobody can withdraw from the fascination which emanates from the magnificent staging of the Great Altar of Pergamon. The modern reconstruction of the west side of the altar is framed at the walls of the hall by the marble plates of the 120m relief frieze which adorned the pedestal of the open altar.
This altar was erected between 175 and 159 BC and destroyed in Late Antiquity. The archaeologist C. Humann found numerous fragments of the altar built into a Byzantine fortification wall at Berlin's excavations (starting 1878) in Pergamon in Asia Minor. The frieze was reassembled in Berlin from thousands of fragements. Its over 100 figures, which are larger than life, depict the battle of the Olympic gods against the giants. The relief frieze in the upper altar court is of Telephos, the mythical founder of Pergamon The Pergamon frieze is a pinnacle of Hellenistic art in the drama of the composition considered as a whole and in the drama of the emotionality of the presentation of the persons in it. Both altar friezes were thoroughly restored from 1994 to 2004.
