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Landmark2nd – 7th c. ADTicketed

Hadrian's Library

Library of Hadrian, Βιβλιοθήκη του Αδριανού

site · Central Athens, Greece

What it is
Hadrian's Library is the ruin of the monumental building the emperor Hadrian put up in Athens around AD 132, beside the Roman Agora on the north side of the Acropolis.
What you’ll see
Only the northern wing survives; the southern one has been destroyed completely (the operator). At the front, the northern half of the west facade still stands, with Corinthian columns set against the wall (de.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
If you are at Monastiraki, yes - it is two minutes from the metro and 150 m from the Roman Agora, so the two make one short visit.
Getting there & cost
The entrance is at 3 Areos Street, two minutes on foot from Monastiraki metro station (lines 1 and 3); buses 025 and 026 stop at Monastiraki (the operator).Ticketed · €10 · checked 9 October 2026Hours, tickets and parking
An enclosure of grass and low excavated walls under a stormy sky, with a few columns standing together in the middle distance, a block of masonry on the right and houses beyond.
Inside the precinct, where the courtyard was. · Photo: Sjaak Kempe from Groningen, The Netherlands · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A tall wall of grey marble blocks lined with a row of Corinthian columns standing close against it, lit at dusk, with flowering bushes in front and a domed building to the left.
The surviving west front, its Corinthian columns set against the wall. · Photo: C messier · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A marble column capital carved with curling acanthus leaves under a square slab, set on a rough stone block in the grass among other fallen blocks.
A Corinthian capital in the library's grounds. · Photo: George E. Koronaios · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Hadrian’s Library is the ruin of the monumental building the emperor Hadrian put up in Athens around AD 132, beside the Roman Agora on the north side of the Acropolis. What stands is the northern part of its west front: a wall of marble with a row of Corinthian columns set against it.

What is there today

Only the northern wing survives; the southern one has been destroyed completely (the operator). At the front, the northern half of the west facade still stands, with Corinthian columns set against the wall (de.wikipedia). Behind it lay a courtyard of roughly 100 by 70 m, surrounded by a hundred columns of Phrygian marble (de.wikipedia; Pleiades), with an oblong pool in the middle; the library itself, with its shelves of papyrus rolls, reading rooms and lecture halls, was on the eastern side (en.wikipedia).

The site holds the remains of three later churches: a four-apsed church of the 5th century, a three-aisled basilica of the 7th, and a 12th-century church that was the first cathedral of the city (en.wikipedia). A larger-than-life marble statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, was dug up here in 1988 and is kept in a small exhibition room on the site, which is not open to the public at present (en.wikipedia). The former Tzisdarakis Mosque of 1759 stands right next to the library (de.wikipedia).

Is it worth the trip?

If you are at Monastiraki, yes - it is two minutes from the metro and 150 m from the Roman Agora, so the two make one short visit. Be clear about what it is: a single impressive facade and a broad precinct of foundations, more an idea of Hadrian’s Athens than a building you walk through. The ticket is €10.

Getting there

The entrance is at 3 Areos Street, two minutes on foot from Monastiraki metro station (lines 1 and 3); buses 025 and 026 stop at Monastiraki (the operator).

It opens daily from 08.00. From 1 April to 31 August it closes at 20.00; through September and October closing comes earlier in steps, to 18.00 in the second half of October; from 1 November to 31 March it closes at 15.00. Last entry is 20 minutes before closing, and the site is shut on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25–26 December. A ticket is €10, reduced €5, and entry is free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October, and on the first and third Sunday of each month from November to March (hh.gr, read 9 October 2026 — check before travelling).

Visiting details

Opening hours
Daily 08.00–20.00 from 1 April to 31 August, then closing earlier through the autumn (19.30 in early September, 18.00 by late October); 08.00–15.00 from 1 November to 31 March. Last entry 20 minutes before closing. Closed 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25–26 December.
Tickets
€10; reduced €5. Free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September and 28 October, and on the first and third Sunday of each month from November to March. Tickets online at tickets.hh.gr.
Parking
Street-side parking is mapped about 160 m away (OSM way/965230046); Monastiraki metro station is about 110 m from the point.

Hours and prices checked 9 October 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

Hadrian built the complex around AD 132 (Pleiades; en.wikipedia), as part of the building programme he himself undertook in Athens (Pleiades). It was inaugurated around 132, when he visited the city for the third time; Pausanias described the building in detail without saying that it was a library (the operator). It served as a library and as a place where the city’s elite could meet and exchange ideas (Pleiades).

The Heruli badly damaged it in 267. The prefect Herculius repaired it in 407–412, and it was later built into the Roman city walls (en.wikipedia). The complex then became the site of the churches whose remains are still there (en.wikipedia; Pleiades).

More photographs

Marble steps leading up to a row of tall fluted columns, two with carved capitals, floodlit at night, with a church and the lit Acropolis rock behind.
The entrance at night. · Photo: George E. Koronaios · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • A broad flight of marble steps rising from a wide paved forecourt to the stumps of columns and piled blocks of a ruined gateway, with a rocky hillside and a cave mouth on the right.

    Photo: Davide Mauro · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    18 km · site · West Attica

    Eleusis

    The visit follows the Processional Road, the end of the Sacred Way from Athens, through the Greater and the Lesser Propylaia to the Telesterion (the operator).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 728329644CC BY
Wikidata Q1455447CC0
OpenStreetMap way/729674865ODbL
Wikipedia (en) — Hadrian's LibraryCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (de) — HadriansbibliothekCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Victoria Romana (Hadrian's Library)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Achaia (Roman province)CC BY-SA 4.0
Hellenic Heritage (H.O.C.R.E.D., for the Ministry of Culture) — Hadrian's Library, hours and ticketslicence not recorded