From the beginning of the 4th century BC until 168 BC Pella was the most important political, financial and administrative center of the Macedonian state. It was known as the greatest of the cities in Macedonia. At the end of the 4th century BC the capital was transferred from Aigai to Pella by Archelaos. He organised the defence of the country and made cultural and artistic contacts with southern Greece. Archelaos entertained in his new palace at Pella poets and tragedians such as Euripides who wrote his tragedies “Archelaos” and “ the Bacchae” there.

He invited one of the greatest painters of antiquity, Zeuxis, to decorate his new palace at Pella. It was in this palace that Philip II, the father of Alexander, was born. Under his reign Pella increased in size and was adorned with a large palace. Artists, poets and philosophers found at the royal court a warm supporter of the arts. It was here that Alexander the great was born in 356 BC and later tutored by Aristotle.

Explore Pella, a city that was built according to the Hippodameian system consisting of straight, parallel streets intersecting at right angles to form rectangular blocks of buildings. The palace was built on a hill dominating ancient Pella. The houses were rich and spacious. The exterior surfaces were plain and undecorated in contrast to the interior of the rooms which had multi-coloured plaster on the walls and beautiful mosaic floors. The rooms for the reception of guests, the banquet rooms were on the northern side.