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The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former templeSacks, David. "Parthenon". Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World, David Sacks, Facts On File, 3rd edition, 2015. Accessed 15 July 2022. on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of classical Greek art, and the Parthenon is considered an enduring symbol of ancient Greece, democracy, and western culture.
The Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC in thanksgiving for the Greek victory over the Persian invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars. Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon also served as the city treasury. Construction started in 447 BC when the Delian League was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438 BC; work on the artwork and decorations continued until 432 BC. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire.
In the final decade of the 6th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. After the Ottoman Greece in the mid-15th century, it became a Parthenon mosque. In the Morean War, a Venetian bomb landed on the Parthenon, which the Ottomans had used as a munitions dump, during the 1687 siege of the Acropolis. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon. From 1800 to 1803, the 7th Earl of Elgin controversially removed many of the surviving sculptures and subsequently shipped them to England where they are now known as the Elgin Marbles or Parthenon marbles. Since 1975, numerous large-scale restoration projects have been undertaken to preserve remaining artefacts and ensure its structural integrity.
In 5th-century BC accounts of the building, the structure is simply called ὁ νᾱός (ho naos; lit. "the temple"). Douglas Frame writes that the name "Parthenon" was a nickname related to the statue of Athena Parthenos, and only appeared a century after construction. He contends that "Athena's temple was never officially called the Parthenon and she herself most likely never had the cult title parthénos". The ancient architects Iktinos and Callicrates appear to have called the building Ἑκατόμπεδος (Hekatómpedos; lit. "the hundred footer") in their lost treatise on Athenian architecture. Harpocration wrote that some people used to call the Parthenon the "Hekatompedos", not due to its size but because of its beauty and fine proportions. The first instance in which Parthenon definitely refers to the entire building comes from the fourth century BC orator Demosthenes.Demosthenes, Against Androtion 22.13 οἱ τὰ προπύλαια καὶ τὸν παρθενῶν᾽. In the 4th century BC and later, the building was referred to as the italic=yes or the Hekatompedon as well as the Parthenon. Plutarch referred to the building during the first century AD as the italic=yes.Plutarch, Pericles 13.4.
A 2020 study by Janric van Rookhuijzen supports the idea that the building known today as the Parthenon was originally called the Hekatompedon. Based on literary and historical research, he proposes that "the treasury called the Parthenon should be recognized as the west part of the building now conventionally known as the Erechtheion".
Because the Parthenon was dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena it has sometimes been referred to as the Temple of Minerva, the Roman name for Athena, particularly during the 19th century.Encyclopædia Britannica, 1878.
Parthénos was also applied to the Virgin Mary ( Parthénos Maria) when the Parthenon was converted to a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the final decade of the 6th century. Freely 2004, p. 69 "Some modern writers maintain that the Parthenon was converted into a Christian sanctuary during the reign of Justinian (527–565)...But there is no evidence to support this in the ancient sources. The existing evidence suggests that the Parthenon was converted into a Christian basilica in the last decade of the sixth century."
The colossal statue of Athena by Phidias was not specifically related to any cult attested by ancient authorsMC. Hellmann, L'Architecture grecque. Architecture religieuse et funéraire, Picard, 2006, p. 118. and is not known to have inspired any religious fervour. Preserved ancient sources do not associate it with any priestess, altar or cult name.B. Nagy, "Athenian Officials on the Parthenon Frieze", AJA, Vol. 96, No. 1 (January 1992), p. 55.
According to Thucydides, during the Peloponnesian War when Sparta's forces were first preparing to invade Attica, Pericles, in an address to the Athenian people, said that the statue could be used as a gold reserve if that was necessary to preserve Athens, stressing that it "contained forty talents of pure gold and it was all removable", but adding that the gold would afterward have to be restored.Thucydides 2.13.5. Retrieved 3 August 2020. The Athenian statesman thus implies that the metal, obtained from contemporary coinage,S. Eddy, "The Gold in the Athena Parthenos", AJA, Vol. 81, No. 1 (Winter, 1977), pp. 107–111. could be used again if absolutely necessary without any impiety. According to Aristotle, the building also contained golden figures that he described as "Victories". The classicist Harris Rackham noted that eight of those figures were melted down for coinage during the Peloponnesian War. Other Greek writers have claimed that treasures such as Persian swords were also stored inside the temple. Some scholars, therefore, argue that the Parthenon should be viewed as a grand setting for a monumental votive statue rather than as a cult site.B. Holtzmann and A. Pasquier, Histoire de l'art antique : l'art grec, École du Louvre, Réunion des musées nationaux, and Documentation française, 1998, p. 177.
Archaeologist Joan Breton Connelly has argued for the coherency of the Parthenon's sculptural programme in presenting a succession of genealogical narratives that track Athenian identity through the ages: from the birth of Athena, through and epic battles, to the final great event of the Athenian Bronze Age, the war of Erechtheus and Eumolpos. She argues a pedagogical function for the Parthenon's sculptured decoration, one that establishes and perpetuates Athenian foundation myth, memory, values and identity. While some classicists, including Mary Beard, Peter Green, and Garry Wills have doubted or rejected Connelly's thesis, an increasing number of historians, archaeologists, and classical scholars support her work. They include: J.J. Pollitt, Brunilde Ridgway, Nigel Spivey, Caroline Alexander, and A. E. Stallings.
The existence of both the proto-Parthenon and its destruction were known from Herodotus,Herodotus Histories, 8.53. and the drums of its columns were visibly built into the curtain wall north of the Erechtheion. Further physical evidence of this structure was revealed with the excavations of Panagiotis Kavvadias of 1885–1890. The findings of this dig allowed Wilhelm Dörpfeld, then director of the German Archaeological Institute, to assert that there existed a distinct substructure to the original Parthenon, called Parthenon I by Dörpfeld, not immediately below the present edifice as previously assumed.W. Dörpfeld, "Der aeltere Parthenon", Ath. Mitteilungen, XVII, 1892, pp. 158–189 and W. Dörpfeld, "Die Zeit des alteren Parthenon", AM 27, 1902, pp. 379–416. Dörpfeld's observation was that the three steps of the first Parthenon consisted of two steps of Poros limestone, the same as the foundations, and a top step of Karrha limestone that was covered by the lowest step of the Periclean Parthenon. This platform was smaller and slightly to the north of the final Parthenon, indicating that it was built for a different building, now completely covered over. This picture was somewhat complicated by the publication of the final report on the 1885–1890 excavations, indicating that the substructure was contemporary with the Kimonian walls, and implying a later date for the first temple.P. Kavvadis, G. Kawerau, Die Ausgabung der Acropolis vom Jahre 1885 bis zum Jahre 1890, 1906.
If the original Parthenon was indeed destroyed in 480, it invites the question of why the site was left as a ruin for thirty-three years. One argument involves the oath sworn by the Greek allies before the Battle of Plataea in 479 BCNM Tod, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions II, 1948, no. 204, lines 46–51, The authenticity of this is disputed, however; see also P. Siewert, Der Eid von Plataia (Munich 1972), pp. 98–102. declaring that the sanctuaries destroyed by the Persians would not be rebuilt, an oath from which the Athenians were only absolved with the Peace of Callias in 450. The cost of reconstructing Athens after the Persian sack is at least as likely a cause. The excavations of Bert Hodge Hill led him to propose the existence of a second Parthenon, begun in the period of Cimon after 468.B. H. Hill, "The Older Parthenon", AJA, XVI, 1912, pp. 535–558. Hill claimed that the Karrha limestone step Dörpfeld thought was the highest of Parthenon I was the lowest of the three steps of Parthenon II, whose stylobate dimensions Hill calculated at .
One difficulty in dating the proto-Parthenon is that at the time of the 1885 excavation, the archaeological method of seriation was not fully developed; the careless digging and refilling of the site led to a loss of much valuable information. An attempt to make sense of the potsherds found on the Acropolis came with the two-volume study by Graef and Langlotz published in 1925–1933.B. Graef, E. Langlotz, Die Antiken Vasen von der Akropolis zu Athen, Berlin 1925–1933. This inspired American archaeologist William Bell Dinsmoor to give limiting dates for the temple platform and the five walls hidden under the re-terracing of the Acropolis. Dinsmoor concluded that the latest possible date for Parthenon I was no earlier than 495 BC, contradicting the early date given by Dörpfeld.W. Dinsmoor, "The Date of the Older Parthenon", AJA, XXXVIII, 1934, pp. 408–448. He denied that there were two proto-Parthenons, and held that the only pre-Periclean temple was what Dörpfeld referred to as Parthenon II. Dinsmoor and Dörpfeld exchanged views in the American Journal of Archaeology in 1935.W. Dörpfeld, "Parthenon I, II, III", AJA, XXXIX, 1935, 497–507, and W. Dinsmoor, AJA, XXXIX, 1935, 508–509
The Parthenon was built primarily by men who knew how to work marble. These quarrymen had exceptional skills and were able to cut the blocks of marble to very specific measurements. The quarrymen also knew how to avoid the faults, which were numerous in the Pentelic marble. If the marble blocks were not up to standard, the architects would reject them. The marble was worked with iron tools – picks, points, punches, chisels, and drills. The quarrymen would hold their tools against the marble block and firmly tap the surface of the rock.Woodford, S. (2008). The Parthenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
A big project like the Parthenon attracted stonemasons from far and wide who travelled to Athens to assist in the project. Slaves and foreigners worked together with the Athenian citizens in the building of the Parthenon, doing the same jobs for the same pay. Temple building was a specialized craft, and there were not many men in Greece qualified to build temples like the Parthenon, so these men would travel and work where they were needed.
Other craftsmen were necessary for the building of the Parthenon, specifically carpenters and metalworkers. Unskilled labourers also had key roles in the building of the Parthenon. They loaded and unloaded the marble blocks and moved the blocks from place to place. In order to complete a project like the Parthenon, many different labourers were needed.
The Parthenon has been described as "the culmination of the development of the Doric order"."Parthenon". Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica, 10 September 2021. Accessed 16 July 2022. The Doric columns, for example, have simple capitals, fluted shafts, and no bases. Above the architrave of the entablature is a frieze of carved pictorial panels (metopes), separated by formal architectural , also typical of the Doric order. The continuous frieze in low relief around the cella and across the lintels of the inner columns, in contrast, reflects the Ionic order. Architectural historian John R. Senseney suggests that this unexpected switch between orders was due to an aesthetic choice on the part of builders during construction, and was likely not part of the original plan of the Parthenon.
Measured at the stylobate, the dimensions of the base of the Parthenon are . The cella was 29.8 metres long by 19.2 metres wide (97.8 × 63.0 ft). On the exterior, the Doric columns measure in diameter and are high. The corner columns are slightly larger in diameter. The Parthenon had 46 outer columns and 23 inner columns in total, each column having 20 flutes. (A flute is the shaft carved into the column form.) The roof was covered with large overlapping marble tiles known as imbrices and tegulae.
The Parthenon is regarded as the finest example of Greek architecture. John Julius Cooper wrote that "even in antiquity, its architectural refinements were legendary, especially the subtle correspondence between the curvature of the stylobate, the taper of the naos walls, and the entasis of the columns".John Julius Norwich, Great Architecture of the World, 2001, p. 63. Entasis refers to the slight swelling, of , in the center of the columns to counteract the appearance of columns having a waist, as the swelling makes them look straight from a distance. The stylobate is the platform on which the columns stand. As in many other classical Greek temples,And in the surviving foundations of the preceding Older Parthenon (Penrose, Principles of Athenian Architecture 2nd ed. ch. II.3, plate 9). it has a slight parabolic upward curvature intended to shed rainwater and reinforce the building against earthquakes. The columns might therefore be supposed to lean outward, but they actually lean slightly inward so that if they carried on, they would meet almost exactly above the centre of the Parthenon. Since they are all the same height, the curvature of the outer stylobate edge is transmitted to the architrave and roof above: "All follow the rule of being built to delicate curves", Gorham Stevens observed when pointing out that, in addition, the west front was built at a slightly higher level than that of the east front.Penrose op. cit. pp. 32–34, found the difference motivated by economies of labour; Gorham P. Stevens, "Concerning the Impressiveness of the Parthenon" American Journal of Archaeology 66.3 (July 1962: 337–338).
It is not universally agreed what the intended effect of these "optical refinements" was. They may serve as a sort of "reverse optical illusion".Archaeologists discuss similarly curved architecture and offer the theory. Nova, "Secrets of the Parthenon", PBS. http://video.yahoo.com/watch/1849622/6070405. As the Greeks may have been aware, two parallel lines appear to bow, or curve outward, when intersected by converging lines. In this case, the ceiling and floor of the temple may seem to bow in the presence of the surrounding angles of the building. Striving for perfection, the designers might have added these curves, compensating for the illusion by creating their own curves, thus negating this effect and allowing the temple to be seen as they intended. It is also suggested that it was to enliven what might have appeared an inert mass in the case of a building without curves. But the comparison ought to be, according to Smithsonian historian Evan Hadingham, with the Parthenon's more obviously curved predecessors than with a notional rectilinear temple..
Some studies of the Acropolis, including of the Parthenon and its facade, have conjectured that many of its proportions approximate the golden ratio.Van Mersbergen, Audrey M., "Rhetorical Prototypes in Architecture: Measuring the Acropolis", Philosophical Polemic Communication Quarterly, Vol. 46, 1998. More recent studies have shown that the proportions of the Parthenon do not match the golden proportion.
Only a small number of the original sculptures remain in situ. Most of the surviving sculptures are at the Acropolis Museum in Athens and at the British Museum in London (see Elgin Marbles). Additional pieces are at the Louvre, the National Museum of Denmark, and the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna.
In March 2022, the Acropolis Museum launched a new website with "photographs of all the frieze blocks preserved today in the Acropolis Museum, the British Museum and the Louvre".
The mythological figures of the metopes of the East, North, and West sides of the Parthenon had been deliberately mutilated by Christian iconoclasts in late antiquity.Pollini 2007, pp. 212–216; Brommer 1979, pp. 23, 30, pl. 41.
The metopes present examples of the Severe Style in the anatomy of the figures' heads, in the limitation of the corporal movements to the contours and not to the muscles, and in the presence of pronounced veins in the figures of the Centauromachy. Several of the metopes still remain on the building, but, with the exception of those on the northern side, they are severely damaged. Some of them are located at the Acropolis Museum, others are in the British Museum, and one is at the Louvre museum.
In March 2011, archaeologists announced that they had discovered five metopes of the Parthenon in the south wall of the Acropolis, which had been extended when the Acropolis was used as a fortress. According to Eleftherotypia daily, the archaeologists claimed the metopes had been placed there in the 18th century when the Acropolis wall was being repaired. The experts discovered the metopes while processing 2,250 photos with modern photographic methods, as the white Pentelic marble they are made of differed from the other stone of the wall. It was previously presumed that the missing metopes were destroyed during the Morosini explosion of the Parthenon in 1687.
One interpretation is that it depicts an idealized version of the Panathenaic procession from the Dipylon Gate in the Kerameikos to the Acropolis. In this procession held every year, with a special procession taking place every four years, Athenians and foreigners participated in honouring the goddess Athena by offering her sacrifices and a new peplos dress, woven by selected noble Athenian girls called ergastines. The procession is more crowded (appearing to slow in pace) as it nears the gods on the eastern side of the temple.
Joan Breton Connelly offers a mythological interpretation for the frieze, one that is in harmony with the rest of the temple's sculptural programme which shows Athenian genealogy through a series of succession myths set in the remote past. She identifies the central panel above the door of the Parthenon as the pre-battle sacrifice of the daughter of the king Erechtheus, a sacrifice that ensured Athenian victory over Eumolpos and his Thracian army. The great procession marching toward the east end of the Parthenon shows the post-battle thanksgiving sacrifice of cattle and sheep, honey and water, followed by the triumphant army of Erechtheus returning from their victory. This represents the first Panathenaia set in mythical times, the model on which historic Panathenaic processions were based.Connelly, Parthenon and Parthenoi, pp. 53–80.Connelly, The Parthenon Enigma, chapters 4, 5, and 7. This interpretation has been rejected by William St Clair, who considers that the frieze shows the celebration of the birth of Ion, who was a descendant of Erechtheus. This interpretation has been rejected by Catharine Titi, who agrees with St Clair that the mood is one of celebration (rather than sacrifice) but argues that the celebration of the birth of Ion requires the presence of an infant but there is no infant on the frieze.
Every statue on the west pediment has a fully completed back, which would have been impossible to see when the sculpture was on the temple; this indicates that the sculptors put great effort into accurately portraying the human body.
The Parthenon survived as a temple dedicated to Athena for nearly 1,000 years until Theodosius II, during the Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire, decreed in 435 that all pagan temples in the Byzantine Empire be closed. It is debated exactly when during the 5th century that the closure of the Parthenon as a temple was put into practice. It is suggested to have occurred in –484, on the order of Emperor Zeno, because the temple had been the focus of Pagan Hellenic opposition against Zeno in Athens in support of Illus, who had promised to restore Hellenic rites to the temples that were still standing.
At some point in the fifth century, Athena's great cult image was looted by one of the emperors and taken to Constantinople, where it was later destroyed, possibly during the siege and sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 AD.
The Parthenon became the fourth most important Christian pilgrimage destination in the Eastern Roman Empire after Constantinople, Ephesos, and Thessaloniki. In 1018, the emperor Basil II went on a pilgrimage to Athens after his final victory over the First Bulgarian Empire for the sole purpose of worshipping at the Parthenon. In medieval Greek accounts it is called the Temple of Theotokos Atheniotissa and often indirectly referred to as famous without explaining exactly which temple they were referring to, thus establishing that it was indeed well known.
At the time of the Latin occupation, it became for about 250 years a Latin Catholic church of Our Lady. During this period a tower, used either as a watchtower or bell tower and containing a spiral staircase, was constructed at the southwest corner of the cella, and vaulted tombs were built beneath the Parthenon's floor.
The rediscovery of the Parthenon as an ancient monument dates back to the period of Humanism; Cyriacus of Ancona was the first after antiquity to describe the Parthenon, of which he had read many times in ancient texts. Thanks to him, Western Europe was able to have the first design of the monument, which Ciriaco called "temple of the goddess Athena", unlike previous travellers, who had called it "church of Virgin Mary":E.W. Bodnar, Cyriacus of Ancona and Athens, Brussels-Berchem, 1960.
...mirabile Palladis Divae marmoreum templum, divum quippe opus Phidiae ("...the wonderful temple of the goddess Athena, a divine work of Phidias").
The precise circumstances under which the Turks appropriated it for use as a mosque are unclear; one account states that Mehmed II ordered its conversion as punishment for an Athenian plot against Ottoman rule. The apse was repurposed into a mihrab, the tower previously constructed during the Roman Catholic occupation of the Parthenon was extended upwards to become a minaret, a minbar was installed, the Christian altar and iconostasis were removed, and the walls were whitewashed to cover icons of Christian saints and other Christian imagery.
Despite the alterations accompanying the Parthenon's conversion into a church and subsequently a mosque, its structure had remained basically intact. In 1667, the Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi expressed marvel at the Parthenon's sculptures and figuratively described the building as "like some impregnable fortress not made by human agency". He composed a poetic supplication stating that, as "a work less of human hands than of Heaven itself, it should remain standing for all time". The French artist Jacques Carrey in 1674 visited the Acropolis and sketched the Parthenon's sculptural decorations.T. Bowie, D. Thimme, The Carrey Drawings of the Parthenon Sculptures, 1971. Early in 1687, an engineer named Plantier sketched the Parthenon for the Frenchman Graviers d'Ortières. These depictions, particularly Carrey's, provide important, and sometimes the only, evidence of the condition of the Parthenon and its various sculptures prior to the devastation it suffered in late 1687 and the subsequent looting of its art objects.
On 26 September 1687 a Venetian mortar round, fired from the Hill of Philopappos, blew up the magazine.Theodor E. Mommsen, The Venetians in Athens and the Destruction of the Parthenon in 1687, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 45, No. 4 (October–December 1941), pp. 544–556. The explosion blew out the building's central portion and caused the cella's walls to crumble into rubble. According to Greek architect and archaeologist Kornilia Chatziaslani:
About three hundred people were killed in the explosion, which showered marble fragments over nearby Turkish defenders and sparked fires that destroyed many homes.
Accounts written at the time conflict over whether this destruction was deliberate or accidental; one such account, written by the German officer Sobievolski, states that a Turkish deserter revealed to Morosini the use to which the Turks had put the Parthenon; expecting that the Venetians would not target a building of such historic importance. Morosini was said to have responded by directing his artillery to aim at the Parthenon. Subsequently, Morosini sought to loot sculptures from the ruin and caused further damage in the process. Sculptures of Poseidon and Athena's horses fell to the ground and smashed as his soldiers tried to detach them from the building's west pediment.
In 1688 the Venetians abandoned Athens to avoid a confrontation with a large force the Turks had assembled at Chalcis; at that time, the Venetians had considered blowing up what remained of the Parthenon along with the rest of the Acropolis to deny its further use as a fortification to the Turks, but that idea was not pursued.
Once the Turks had recaptured the Acropolis, they used some of the rubble produced by this explosion to erect a smaller mosque within the shell of the ruined Parthenon. For the next century and a half, parts of the remaining structure were looted for building material and especially valuable objects.
The 18th century was a period of Ottoman stagnation—so that many more Europeans found access to Athens, and the picturesque ruins of the Parthenon were much drawn and painted, spurring a rise in philhellenism and helping to arouse sympathy in Britain and France for Greek independence. Amongst those early travellers and archaeologists were James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, who were commissioned by the Society of Dilettanti to survey the ruins of classical Athens. They produced the first measured drawings of the Parthenon, published in 1787 in the second volume of Antiquities of Athens Measured and Delineated.
From 1801 to 1812, agents of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, removed about half the surviving Parthenon sculptures, sending them to Britain in efforts to establish a private museum. Elgin stated he removed the sculptures with permission of the Ottoman officials who exercised authority in Athens at the time. The legality of Elgin's actions has been disputed.
Four pieces of the sculptures have been repatriated to Greece: 3 from the Vatican, and 1 from a museum in Sicily.
An organized effort to preserve and restore buildings on the Acropolis began in 1975, when the Greek government established the Committee for the Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments (ESMA). That group of interdisciplinary specialist scholars oversees the academic understanding of the site to guide restoration efforts. The project later attracted funding and technical assistance from the European Union. An archaeological committee thoroughly documented every artefact remaining on the site, and architects assisted with to determine their original locations. Particularly important and fragile sculptures were transferred to the Acropolis Museum.
A crane was installed for moving marble blocks; the crane was designed to fold away beneath the roofline when not in use. In some cases, prior re-constructions were found to be incorrect. These were dismantled, and a careful process of restoration began. "The Surface Conservation Project" (pdf file). Once they had been conserved, the West Frieze blocks were moved to the museum, and copies cast in artificial stone were reinstalled in their places.
Originally, various blocks were held together by elongated iron H pins that were completely coated in lead, which protected the iron from corrosion. Stabilizing pins added in the 19th century were not lead-coated, and corroded. Since the corrosion product (rust) is expansive, the expansion caused further damage by cracking the marble.
The last remaining slabs from the western section of the Parthenon frieze were removed from the monument in 1993 for fear of further damage. National Documentation Centre – Ministry of Culture , see History of the Frieze They have now been transported to the new Acropolis Museum. Until cleaning of the remaining sculptures was completed in 2005, black crusts and coatings were present on the marble surface. Between 20 January and the end of March 2008, 4200 items (sculptures, inscriptions small terracotta objects), including some 80 artefacts dismantled from the monuments in recent years, were removed from the old museum on the Acropolis to the new Acropolis Museum.
In 2019, Greece's Central Archaeological Council approved a restoration of the interior cella's north wall (along with parts of others). The project will reinstate as many as 360 ancient stones, and install 90 new pieces of Pentelic marble, minimizing the use of new material as much as possible. The eventual result of these restorations will be a partial restoration of some or most of each wall of the interior cella.
Since the 19th century, the Parthenon's exterior has been encased in various extents of scaffolding until September 2025, when the scaffolding on the western side was removed temporarily. The Greek government says that it intends to remove all scaffolding from the monument altogether by 2026 after the completion of restoration works.
Islamic mosque
In 1456, Ottoman Empire Turkish forces invaded Athens and laid siege to a Florence army defending the Acropolis until June 1458, when it surrendered to the Turks. The Turks may have briefly restored the Parthenon to the Greek Orthodox Christians for continued use as a church. "In 1466 the Parthenon was referred to as a church, so it seems likely that for some time at least, it continued to function as a cathedral, being restored to the use of the Greek archbishop." Some time before the end of the fifteenth century, the Parthenon became a Parthenon mosque. "Some time later – we do not know exactly when – the Parthenon was itself converted into a mosque."
Partial destruction
As part of the Morean War (1684–1699), the Venetians sent an expedition led by Francesco Morosini to attack Athens and capture the Acropolis. The Ottomans fortified the Acropolis and used the Parthenon as a gunpowder magazine – despite having been forewarned of the dangers of this use by the 1656 explosion that severely damaged the Propylaea – and as a shelter for members of the local Turkish community.
War of Independence
During the Greek War of Independence (1821–1833) which ended the 355-year Ottoman rule of Athens, the Acropolis was besieged twice, first by the Greeks in 1821–22 and then by the Ottoman forces in 1826–27. During the first siege, the besieged Ottoman forces attempted to melt the lead in the columns of the Parthenon to cast bullets. During the second siege, the Parthenon was significantly damaged by Ottoman artillery fire.
Independent Greece
When independent Greece gained control of Athens in 1832, the visible section of the minaret was demolished; only its base and spiral staircase up to the level of the architrave remain intact. Soon all the medieval and Ottoman buildings on the Acropolis were destroyed. The image of the small mosque within the Parthenon's cella has been preserved in Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière's photograph, published in Lerebours's Excursions Daguerriennes in 1842: the first photograph of the Acropolis.Neils, The Parthenon: From Antiquity to the Present, p. 336 – the picture was taken in October 1839. The area became a historical precinct controlled by the Greek government. In the later 19th century, the Parthenon was widely considered by Americans and Europeans to be the pinnacle of human architectural achievement, and became a popular destination and subject of artists, including Frederic Edwin Church and Sanford Robinson Gifford. Today it attracts millions of tourists every year, who travel up the path at the western end of the Acropolis, through the restored Propylaea, and up the Panathenaic Way to the Parthenon, which is surrounded by a low fence to prevent damage.
Dispute over the marbles
The dispute centres around those of the Parthenon Marbles removed by Elgin, which are in the British Museum. A few sculptures from the Parthenon are also in the Louvre in Paris, in Copenhagen, and elsewhere, while more than half are in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Greek Premier Says New Acropolis Museum to Boost Bid for Parthenon Sculptures, , International Herald Tribune. A few can still be seen on the building itself. In 1983, the Greek government formally asked the UK government to return the sculptures in the British Museum to Greece, and subsequently listed the dispute with UNESCO. The British Museum has consistently refused to return the sculptures, and successive British governments have been unwilling to force the museum to do so (which would require legislation). In 2021, UNESCO called upon the UK government to resolve the issue at the intergovernmental level. Discussions between UK and Greek officials are ongoing.
Restoration
In 1981, an earthquake caused damage to the east façade. Air pollution and acid rain have damaged the marble and stonework.
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Categories: 438 Bc, 5th-century Bc Religious Buildings And Structures, Temples Of Athena, Acropolis Of Athens, Ancient Greek Buildings And Structures In Athens, Landmarks In Athens, Destroyed Greek Temples, Temples In Ancient Athens, Sculptures By Phidias, Greek Temples, Former Churches In Greece, Religious Buildings And Structures Converted Into Mosques, Former Mosques In Greece, Ruins In Greece, World Heritage Sites In Greece, Persecution Of Pagans In The Late Roman Empire
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