---
name: "Nashville's Parthenon"
subtitle: "A full-scale Parthenon — gilded 42-foot Athena and all — in Tennessee"
date: 2026-07-08
shortlist: true
link: "https://www.nashvilleparthenon.com/"
linkText: "nashvilleparthenon.com"
source: "Open Culture"
topics: [travel-and-places, design-and-art]
tags: [nashville, replica, architecture, museum]
description: "A full-scale, permanent replica of the Athenian Parthenon in Nashville, complete with a gilded 42-foot statue of Athena, built for the city's 1897 Centennial Exposition."
---

Nashville built a full-scale, full-detail replica of the Athenian Parthenon for its 1897 Centennial Exposition, made it permanent in 1931, and in 1990 installed a 42-foot statue of Athena inside — later gilded — making it the closest thing on earth to seeing the temple as the Greeks did, colossal cult statue included. It doubles as the city's art museum, sitting in the middle of Centennial Park. The sheer audacity of the thing is the point: it's the Parthenon, finished, in Tennessee.