DESCRIPTION:

The public buildings of Pafos were located in the center of the ancient city, except for the theater and the amphitheater, which were situated on the outskirts in order to avoid any disturbance they may have caused. Among the public buildings, only the Agora, the Odeon, and the Asclepius remain. The Agora, which was the center of the commercial, cultural, and political life in ancient Pafos, takes the form of a large square courtyard surrounded by colonnades. In its current form, it seems to have been built around the mid 2nd century AD. Its destruction was originally dated to the 4th century AD, along with many other monuments in the city, but this dating is now being re-evaluated. Only the foundations of the column bases of the colonnades remain from the Agora, but buildings such as the commercial shops that must have existed along the colonnades have been destroyed. The latest excavations carried out in recent years by the Polish Archaeological Mission in the Agora have uncovered the remains of buildings that have been interpreted as a temple, a warehouse, and dining areas. The archaeological research also showed that the Roman Agora was built, like all the Roman buildings of the city, on top of earlier structures dating at the Hellenistic period.