Piano
Nobile
The
principal ceremonial route to the upper floor, or Piano
Nobile as Evans calls it, was by way of a monumental
staircase at the south end of the West Wing. The entrance
is just about at the middle of the east-west stretch
of the Corridor of the Procession and led into the South
Propylaeum. A propylaeum was the term used
by the Greeks to describe the formal entrance to their
sanctuaries and, in its most basic form, consists of
a doorway with a portico, or porch, with one or two
columns. In some cases, like this one, there is a portico
on both sides of the door. Evans found the remains of
a set of jambs at the front of the outer portico enabling
him to restore two sets of three doorways with a light-well
or antechamber in between. He also found a pair of column
bases to support the roof of a set to the front of a
space approximately 9.5 metres across and 7.5 metres
deep. The size of their bases suggests the columns were
probably about 4.5 metres high, and he restored them
as such.
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South
Propylaeum with outer doors cut away in the foreground
The
side walls were decorated with frescoes, most
notably the famous Cup-bearer, which continue
the processional theme of the corridor. The doorway
was about 4.5 metres wide—the same distance
that separates the two column bases. A pair of
steps led through to the smaller inner portico.
It was while excavating in this area that Evans
found clear evidence that the existing propylaeum
replaced a much wider one from the First Palace
Period.
Beyond
the inner portico was a broad flight of a dozen
steps, overhung by columned galleries on either
side. The vestibule at the top apparently ended
in a portico (Evans found an appropriate column
base that had slid down the hill and restored
it here) and a pair of doors leading to what
is described as a lobby and then to the rest
of the first storey.
The
nature and function of the other rooms was restored
by Evans largely on the basis of material that
had fallen into the rooms below.
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Straight
ahead was the Tri-columnar Hall,built above the Pillar
Crypts and adjacent rooms on the ground floor where Evans
found the necessary column bases. He also reconstructed
a small room that he called the Treasury Chamber because
of a number of stone vessels, including a rhyton in the
shape of a lion’s head, that he had found beneath
it.
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A
long corridor, corresponding to the one on the ground
floor, linked the large halls that Evans restored
along the west façade. His Great Hall was
above Magazines VI-X where massive piers supported
a pair of columns. The there was another room that
he called the Sanctuary Hall on account of the mural
fragments with religious scenes found in Magazines
XI-XIII. Since then, the evidence has been reinterpreted
and it is generally believed that that hall was
much larger and extended over the whole block of
Magazines XI-XVI. Fragments of what is known as
the Camp Stool Fresco, including the woman known
as La Parisienne, were
in the courtyard and in the magazines below. |
It is agreed that each of these halls had a large window
overlooking the West Court, presumably to allow select
groups of people to observe the events taking place
there.
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