What is a stoa?
A stoa is a long, covered walkway or hall in ancient Greek architecture, closed by a solid wall at the back and open at the front behind a row of columns. The row of columns itself is a colonnade. The Greek word stoa means a colonnade or porch.
Stoas were public buildings. They often framed the agora, the marketplace of a Greek city, giving shade and shelter. Merchants sold goods there, artists showed their work, and people met to talk and teach. Stoicism takes its name from the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Stoa” on the Athenian agora, where its founder Zeno of Citium taught around 300 BC.
Recognising it
- Early stoas were single-storey: a long, narrow hall, open at the front, usually with Doric columns.
- Later stoas had two storeys, an inner row of columns (often Ionic) and a row of shops or offices along the back.
- The best-known example is the Stoa of Attalos in Athens, a gift from King Attalos II of Pergamon in the 2nd century BC. It measures 115 by 20 metres, has two storeys and had 42 shop rooms on the ground floor. It was reconstructed in the 1950s and since 1956 has housed the Museum of the Ancient Agora.
| Early stoas | Single-storey; a long, narrow hall, open at the front, usually with Doric columns |
|---|---|
| Later stoas | Two storeys; an inner row of columns (often Ionic) and a row of shops or offices along the back |
Application
- Use the terms precisely. A stoa is a building in its own right; a colonnade is just the row of columns, and a portico is a columned porch in front of an entrance.
- Spot the idea in later buildings. Covered arcades and colonnaded walks along squares and shopping streets follow the same principle: shelter for people on foot and space for trade.
- Read the column orders. Doric outside and Ionic inside is a classic combination in Greek stoas.
Common mistake: calling every colonnaded walkway a stoa. The term belongs to ancient Greek architecture.
Related terms
- Colonnade
- Agora
- Portico
- Greek architecture
- Column
- Doric
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