The restoration of the bouleuterion is part of a broader plan for revamping the Sanctuary of Dodoni in northwestern Greece.
It was part of an ambitious development plan carried out in the 3rd century BC by the king of Epirus, Pyrrhus, for the Sanctuary of Zeus and Dione at Dodoni in northwestern Greece. The plan included a theater and a stadium, but was mainly about the bouleuterion (the senate), which, together with the adjacent prytaneion (the administrative center), testified to the sanctuary’s dual character.
The bouleuterion was big, covering 1,250 square meters. “It was a building of impressive proportions and it was key to the sanctuary’s role as a political center and as the seat of the Epirotic political formations in Hellenistic times. The Epirote League convened there, as did the Koinon of the Epirotes, following the abolition of the monarchy in 231 BC,” says archaeologist Hypatia Faklari from the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ioannina, referring to two important tribal alliances.
“Representatives from various Epirote tribes – such as the Molossians, the Chaonians and the Thesprotians – would gather here to make decisions about the region’s future,” she adds.
The Culture Ministry recently announced a plan to restore and showcase the bouleuterion. The work will be carried out by the Ioanina Ephorate with resources from the Hellenic Parliament. It will be part of a broader program of interventions being planned by the ministry to revamp the Sanctuary of Dodoni, with an overall budget exceeding 9 million euros. The first-phase study for the bouleuterion’s restoration was recently given the green light by the ministry’s Central Archaeological Council (KAS), and is aimed at protecting the existing ruins, as well as the partial restoration of the building in a way that demonstrates its historical evolution. To this end, the exterior walls, columns and steps will be restored, as will four late Roman-era burial sites found there, among other elements.
Faklari explains that the tombs confirm the site’s many different uses during its tumultuous history. Other finds – made by archaeologist Sotiris Dakaris, who excavated the bouleuterion in 1965 – suggested that it also served as a workshop producing pottery or porphyra, a purple dye. The site also suffered massive destruction, first at the hands of the Aetolians in 219 BC and then the Romans in 167 BC, though the final blow came with a massive earthquake in AD 522-528.
“There were so many destructive events that the archaeological layers are not very clearly defined. The ground has been heavily disturbed, so we are trying to identify as much evidence as possible to ensure that the restoration of the bouleuterion is done properly,” says Faklari, referring to the excavation that has been under way since 2022, under the direction of honorary ephor Varvara Papadopoulou.
The brittle limestone used to build the monument poses additional challenges, while archaeologists and researchers are also puzzled by several small, semicircular stones uncovered in earlier excavations, which may suggest that the bouleuterion’s seats were made differently and of a different material than previously thought. The roof, however, was certainly wooden and tiled, although one less widely accepted theory suggests it may have also had an atrium. What is certain is that numerous lead oracle tablets from Dodoni were found at the bouleuterion. These tablets, inscribed by visitors to the sanctuary with their questions to Zeus and Dione, were inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register in 2023.
“Pilgrims would travel the Sacred Way to visit the oracle and ask their questions,” says Faklari. “They began at the curved end of the stadium, the sphendone, pass in front of the theater’s stage, and then in front of the bouleuterion portico, across the street from the prytaneion. After passing another two small temples, the pilgrim would reach the Hiera Oikia or Sacred House, where the oracle was.”
