It almost felt like we conjured up a Parthenon in Nashville when we visited for midwinter break. We had just booked our trip to Greece and the kids and I had a handful of days to explore Nashville for mid-winter break while my husband was at a conference. We hadn’t done a lot of research for this trip and we were lounging in our room at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and I asked the teens to look up a few places that might interest them to visit.
There’s a Parthenon here, mom.
Yeah right. Teenagers joke so much.
No seriously there is a Parthenon in Nashville and it’s a life-size replica.
Why on earth would anyone build a replica Parthenon here, of all places?
Reader, we found that out when we visited and you can too. Apparently the sculptures inside are direct castings of the original marbles from the Greek Parthenon and those are now in the British Museum. There is also a replica of an Athena stature that is quite impressive, so I’m glad we paid the entrance fee ($10 for adults and $8 for youth when we visited). And while this Parthenon in Nashville seemed like it was in a lot better condition than the real one in Greece, it was definitely an emotional moment when we finally saw the original. Seeing these structures made us appreciate time and history and the incredible things humans can build.
And when is the best time to visit the Parthenon?
Both Parthenons seems to be the least busy right at opening (and isn’t this everything in life?) Also, the Nashville Parthenon is right next to one of the fried chicken places that we tried when the teens decided to eat as much Nashville Hot chicken as they could on this trip. The Nashville Parthenon had free parking (I think it might have been time limited) and is in a beautiful park.
Did you know before today that there is a Nashville Parthenon? (We also found what might be the best bathroom in the whole world in Nashville on our trip too…)
(PS for Athens, we stayed at a really convenient apartment style accommodation and it was easy to get to the Greek Parthenon from there. We visited in April which seemed like a low season and arrived at opening.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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