Aigai: The Mysteries of Philip II’s Restored Palace

Mystery … and a love of stories: the two things that probably draw most of us to visit and explore ancient archaeological sites and other historical spots. From its earliest days, archaeology has been driven by these two abiding human interests. Greece, with all its great archaeological sites – Mycenae, Knossos, Delphi, Olympia, the Athenian Acropolis and so many more – is a land filled with historical mysteries, myths and heroic stories.

Today, there is a new great site not to be missed that ranks right up there with the other A-listers: ancient Aigai, located in the village of Vergina southwest of Thessaloniki. Not only does it have a large new museum that offers a completely fresh perspective on the museum experience, but Aigai’s newly restored Macedonian palace – now attributed to Philip II, father of Alexander the Great – just reopened last summer, allowing the public to stroll through and experience firsthand its majestic, age-old ceremonial spaces.

A history-rich region

Here in ancient Macedonia’s lush heartland near Veria, the “Gardens of Midas,” influential historical figures were born and raised – or converged from afar – and reached out to impact the world, leaving their mark even on our own present-day world. Philip, Alexander, Cassander, Aristotle, Euripides, Eurydice, Olympia: these kings, philosophers, playwrights and powerful queens all walked the palace halls and streets of Aigai and nearby Pella, the two seats of Macedonian royal authority, where today archaeologists, museologists and restorers have created an extraordinary constellation of historical, visitor-friendly destinations that shed new light on northern Greece’s fascinating past. The brightest star in this Macedonian “Milky Way” is Aigai.

Since Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos first identified Philip II’s tomb at Aigai in 1977, Vergina has become a focal point for the study of Macedonian history; a center of research frequented by scholars from Greece and around the world. At the same time, members of the public have been increasingly welcomed through a series of major infrastructure projects or other cultural initiatives: the establishment of the Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai (1997), the Byzantine Museum of Veria (2002), a visitors’ center at the Nymphaeum of Mieza (2006) and the new Museum of Pella (2010); improvements made to the Archaeological Museum of Veria (2020-2021); greater accessibility provided to Macedonian tombs at Lefkadia; and, most recently, the creation of Aigai’s Polycentric Museum (opened 2023) and the extensive reinvestigation and restoration of its palace (2007-2024).

The palace on the hill

The commanding position of the royal palace at Aigai, overlooking the ancient city (and modern Vergina) from its southern edge, clearly evokes a sense of authority. Such a position would have been a natural choice for the monarchs of ancient Macedonia. But who lived here, and who first built a palace on this spot? Was the palace we see today the first one, or the last? The date of the building and the history of the site’s occupation are primary questions for archaeologists. For many decades, the palace at Vergina was believed to be Hellenistic in date, erected after Philip II and Alexander. Evidence for this was a coin of Lysimachus, king of Macedonia from 306 BC, discovered among the palace’s ruins.

Situated apparently in the countryside, the building was also said – at a time when the location of ancient Aigai remained uncertain, with some historians even placing it at Edessa – to have been a remote “summer palace,” secondary in rank and function to the already familiar royal seat at Pella. Today, new excavations, led by archaeologist and former director of the Imathia Ephorate of Antiquities Angeliki Kottaridi, have identified the founder of Aigai’s palace as Philip II, in the years before his death in 336 BC, based on ceramic, architectural and iconographic evidence.

A troubling mystery

The earliest excavations of the Aigai palace were conducted by French archaeologist Léon Heuzey in 1861. More scientific investigations were launched by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki professor Konstantinos Romaios in 1937. After WWII, studies of the site continued under his colleagues and students, including Andronikos, until 1975, by which time the palace’s entire layout had been revealed. Regrettably, in one of the many mysteries still enshrouding Aigai, Kottaridi reports that few detailed records from these important excavations appear to exist, meaning the 2007 reinvestigation of the palace had to proceed essentially from scratch.

Witnessing a new era

To experience Aigai’s restored palace, visitors should be prepared for a walk. Ascending from Vergina, one passes the Sanctuary of Eukleia (goddess of glory and good repute), where votive statues with inscribed bases were once erected by Queen Eurydice, wife of Amyntas III and mother of Philip II. The small theater in which Philip was ultimately assassinated by a disgruntled male lover in 336 BC lies just below the crown of the hill. Continuing upward to the palace’s east-side entrance, rows of standing Doric columns (more than 20) gradually fill the skyline. Equally impressive is the sheer amount of gleaming new stone evident in the restored foundations and walls, as well as the excellent craftsmanship of the stone-carving, and the seamless joining of new architectural additions to fragmentary original members. Everything in the palace appears meticulously prepared, presented and welcoming, with well-constructed walkways and steps; “windows” left through new pavements to allow the underlying ancient structure to be viewed; large, painstakingly reconstructed pebble-mosaic floors; and 35 original or newly crafted monumental marble thresholds.

Following the palace’s latest excavations, the building can be seen in a new light. Diagnostic red-figure and black-glazed pottery, according to Kottaridi, dates its foundations after about 350 BC, while its function was strictly as a ceremonial banqueting center and reception hall – not as a royal residence. Moreover, Kottaridi reports, it had a “brilliant architect,” whose daring, innovative design “opened new paths” in the Greco-Roman world for future palatial, public and domestic architecture.

Artistry and innovation

The former splendor of Philip II’s palace is reflected in the ornate, colorful facades of Macedonian tombs that seem to have copied its style, particularly the Tomb of Judgement (late 4th century BC) near Lefkadia. While its column drums were of ordinary poros (limestone), more decorative features (including capitals, bases, friezes and moldings) were carved from high-quality travertine stone – all finished off with brightly painted marble stucco, as shown by preserved traces of red, brownish-yellow and grey-blue pigments.

The main east side of the two-story palace was adorned with Doric columns on its lower level. The reconstructed Ionic facade of the upper level can be seen in the new Aigai museum. Kottaridi characterises the distinctive Ionic “double-side pillar-columns” that mark the palace’s entrance and its upper-floor’s lateral porticos an “ingenious” design, “fully developed here for the first time.” Benches (able to seat up to 170 of the king’s visitors!) were provided in two of the stoas (roofed colonnades) beside the central gateway and within its inner vestibules.

Visitors entering the palace today will find an enormous central courtyard surrounded by Doric columns and elegant, mosaic-paved banqueting halls (androns) for the king and his male guests. Turning left in this peristyle, one first encounters a circular chamber (tholos) sacred to Herakles Patroos, the semi-divine patron of Philip and Alexander’s family. Its interior walls were once adorned with Corinthian half-columns, like those in the tholos monuments of Delphi, Olympia and Epidaurus. Most striking among the dining spaces are three tripartite halls on the courtyard’s south, west and north sides, which also feature Ionic double-side pillar-columns at their entrances. The large western halls each held 30 dining couches, while the entire dining complex reportedly accommodated 230 couches, or up to 460 banqueters. A corridor on the north allowed access to an external terrace with a panoramic view.

Balancing a new understanding

The takeaway from a visit to Aigai? The newly restored palace represents a grand, mystery-solving vision of ancient Macedonia and Philip II. We’ve certainly seen grand archaeological visions before, at the Athenian Acropolis, Knossos, Mycenae and elsewhere. Such inspired perspectives are a great tradition in Greece and a beloved source of interest for visitors. Perhaps as Aigai’s recent “dust” begins to settle, there will be a clearer understanding of the scope of the work and contributions accomplished. Much hinges on the palace’s new foundation date, with significant ramifications for the history of ancient Greek architecture and how we perceive the ancient Macedonian monarchy.

Yet many questions remain: If the royal family didn’t live at the palace, where did they reside? Was Philip II truly an enlightened, Plato-inspired monarch, an architectural innovator, who welcomed his subjects en masse into his presence, and who cared enough about democratic ideals to make his palace, as Kottaridi puts it, “an architectural manifesto of the ideal state,” and to post his new laws in a publically accessible portico beside its entrance? Such a benevolent, intellectual image clashes with that we’ve previously held of Philip as an ambitious military commander and empire builder who conquered peoples, burned cities and, at the end, elevated himself among the Olympian gods. The truth may lie somewhere in the middle.