Parthenon -
Athens -
Greece.
The Parthenon is a former temple on the
Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess
Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in
447 BC when the
Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of
Classical Greece, generally considered the zenith of the
Doric order. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of
Greek art. The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring
symbol of
Ancient Greece,
Athenian democracy and western civilization, and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments.
The Greek Ministry of Culture is currently carrying out a program of selective restoration and reconstruction to ensure the stability of the partially ruined structure.
The Parthenon itself replaced an older temple of Athena, which historians call the Pre-Parthenon or
Older Parthenon, that was destroyed in the
Persian invasion of 480 BC. The temple is archaeoastronomically aligned to the
Hyades. While a sacred building dedicated to the city's patron goddess, the Parthenon was actually used primarily as a treasury. For a time, it served as the treasury of the
Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire
. In the 5th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a
Christian church dedicated to the
Virgin Mary.
After the Ottoman conquest, it was turned into a mosque in the early 1460s. On
26 September 1687, an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by
Venetian bombardment. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures. In 1806,
Thomas Bruce, 7th
Earl of Elgin removed some of the surviving sculptures with the alleged permission of the
Ottoman Empire. These sculptures, now known as the
Elgin Marbles or the
Parthenon Marbles, were sold in 1816 to the
British Museum in
London, where they are now displayed. Since
1983 (on the initiative of
Culture Minister Melina Mercouri), the
Greek government has been committed to the return of the sculptures to Greece
In
1975, the Greek government began a concerted effort to restore the Parthenon and other
Acropolis structures. After some delay, a Committee for the
Conservation of the Acropolis
Monuments was established in 1983.
The project later attracted funding and technical assistance from the
European Union. An archaeological committee thoroughly documented every artifact remaining on the site, and architects assisted with computer models 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-construction was found to be incorrect. These were dismantled, and a careful process of restoration began.
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 so coated, and corroded. Since
the corrosion product (rust) is expansive, the expansion caused further damage by cracking the marble. All new metalwork uses titanium, a strong, lightweight, and corrosion resistant material.
The Parthenon will not be restored to a pre-1687 state, but the explosion damage will be mitigated as much as possible, both in the interest of restoring the structural integrity of the edifice (important in this earthquake-prone region) and to restore the aesthetic integrity by filling in chipped sections of column drums and lintels, using precisely sculpted marble cemented in place. New
Pentelic marble from the original quarry is being used. Ultimately, almost all major pieces of marble will be placed in the structure where they originally would have been, supported as needed by modern materials. While the repairs initially show as white against the weathered tan of original surfaces, they will become less prominent as they age.
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Text by wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon
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- published: 30 Dec 2014
- views: 2914