The Parthenon In Nashville Tennessee In Centennial Park Royalty-Free Stock Photo

Parthenon in Nashville is the world’s only exact-size and detail replica of the original temple in Athens, Greece. Tennessee celebrated its 100th year of statehood with the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, Nashville took advantage of its nickname “Athens of the South” and built the Fine Art Building as a copy of Athens’ most famous building. The roof, expanded walls and load-bearing columns were made of reinforced concrete, the novel new building material of the twentieth century; the brick walls and non load-bearing columns of the 1897 building were retained and incorporated into the new construction. For the permanent surface treatment Hart selected a cast concrete aggregate, using a formula developed by John Earley of Washington, DC. This material was used for all exterior surfaces as well as the roof tiles, decorative work and sculpture. The firm of Foster and Creighton were the general contractors for the rebuilding. Sculptor George Julian Zolnay, who had created the pedimental sculptures on the 1897 Parthenon, returned to make the metopes of the Doric frieze. Nashville sculptor Belle Kinney and her Austrian-born husband Leopold Scholz were hired to create the permanent pediment figures. Work on the exterior of the building was completed by 1925.The Parthenon built for the Centennial was not a replica on the inside.