[The sanctuaries of Asklepios in ancient Athens].

Asklepios was the main healing deity of the Classical Antiquity. After his gradual establishing, his cult expanded throughout the Greek world especially in the 5th century BC, when Asklepios reached also Athens. Around 420 BC, two sanctuaries of his (sc. Asklepieia) were founded there. Such sanctuaries were places of both the worship and therapy. The first one was located in the port of Pireus, the second one on the south slope of the Acropolis. The latter functioned as a centre of the healing cult almost until the end of the 5th century AD. Sometime in the 1st half of the 6th century a Christian basilica was built over the area of the earlier buildings of Asklepieion.