Just when we started to believe the scaffolding was part of the original Parthenon, the Greek Ministry of Culture proudly unveiled its restoration work on the western facade. The scaffolding has finally come off and we get to see the actual structure. For the first time in some 220 years the Parthenon has its most complete form. If you think that's all there is to say on the subject, think again. There's so much to say in fact, we'll have to make this a three part series.
June 19, 2026 Skai.GR: Ιστορική στιγμή στην Ακρόπολη: Συμπληρώθηκε μετά από 220 χρόνια το δυτικό αέτωμα του...
(Historical moment in the Acropolis: 220 years later the western pediment...).
When I saw the result of all this heroic effort, my initial reaction was one of shock. I haven't heard anyone yet pointing this out, but the emptiness of the facade is so glaring, that it looks like an indictment of the centuries old rape of Athena's temple.
So why was this heavy restoration work necessary in the first place? A particularly evocative answer was recently posted online, explaining that what really turned the 2500 year old monument into a ruin, was the mortar attack in 1687 by the Venetians when the Parthenon was used by the Ottomans as a gunpowder storehouse.
May 30, 2026 Rewired Era: The 8th Wonder They Demolished in 1687 — And Buried Every Photograph.
According to the documentary, the Turks naively reckoned the Venetians would not dare destroy their own "Western heritage". But that was not how the Venetians saw it. To them, it was a remnant of the Eastern Roman Empire - a geopolitical rival and a centuries old nail in their coffin.
The monument that is resting on foundations laid in the Bronze Age, was shattered in a single catastrophe in 1687. The documentary makes the case that the skeleton of the ruins has been exalted over the centuries to such an extent, that it is now preferred as a ruin, instead of the real thing in its full glory.
If that is indeed the case, the culture popes in the Western world are not going like the restoration work. What has just been unveiled, has destroyed that carefully crafted image.
The exaltation of ruins is also true for the sculptures and other art work, which was originally painted in bright colors adorned with gold and silver. Western museum curators prefer the sterile, white, soulless marble that classical art has become, as if to stress the fact that Hellenism is a has-been, mere ruins of a bygone era that is gone forever.
In the 21st century it is easy to forget that we are talking here about the era of the Great Western Powers and "the Great Game" (link). These colonial players are now themselves a ruin, but that was not always the case.
There is hardly any record available of the temple before the Venetian attack of 1687, more about which in part 2. The description of the documentary reads inter alia:
"Contemporary accounts describe columns collapsing, sculptures being scattered, and one of history’s greatest architectural achievements being permanently altered in a matter of moments. But when historians examine sketches, traveler journals, and early architectural surveys created before the destruction, they find evidence of a monument that looked dramatically different from the ruins familiar today. Detailed carvings, statues, and entire sections of the temple disappeared after 1687, surviving only in drawings and fragmented records produced by the few people who documented it beforehand".
To be continued.
Press release by the Greek Ministry of Culture (Greek) (English).
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