Parthenon

Timeline

1. 480 BC

   Older temple destroyed

   The Persian sack under Xerxes I destroys the Older Parthenon (then under construction) along with most of the older Acropolis temples.

2. 447 BC

   Pericles begins rebuild

   Pericles initiates the Acropolis rebuilding programme, naming Iktinos and Kallikrates as architects and Phidias as overall sculptural director.

3. 438 BC

   Temple completed

   After nine years the Parthenon's architecture is essentially complete and Phidias' chryselephantine Athena Parthenos is installed inside the cella.

4. 432 BC

   Sculptural programme done

   Pediments, metopes and the inner frieze are finished as the Peloponnesian War breaks out, marking the absolute apogee of Classical Greek art.

5. 5th c. AD

   Christian conversion

   Under Roman Christianization the temple becomes a Byzantine Orthodox church to the Virgin Mary, with the goddess Athena handed over to the Theotokos.

6. 1204

   Latin church

   After the Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople, Athens passes to Latin rule and the Parthenon is reconsecrated as a Roman Catholic cathedral.

7. 1456

   Mosque conversion

   Following the Ottoman conquest of Athens the Parthenon becomes a mosque, with a minaret raised on the southwest corner of the temple.

8. September 1687

   Morosini's bombardment

   Venetian artillery under Francesco Morosini strikes an Ottoman gunpowder magazine inside the cella, causing the catastrophic explosion that wrecks the roof.

9. 1801-1812

   Elgin Marbles

   Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Porte, removes around half the surviving frieze, pediment sculpture and metopes; they enter the British Museum.

10. 1832

    Greek independence

    After independence from the Ottomans, the Parthenon and Acropolis are designated a national antiquity and systematic conservation efforts begin.

11. 1898-1902

    Balanos restoration

    Greek engineer Nikolaos Balanos leads the first major restoration, re-erecting columns with reinforced-concrete repairs and iron tie-clamps.

12. 1975

    EMA programme begins

    The Acropolis Restoration programme (EMA) is launched, dismantling Balanos's iron repairs and replacing them with titanium clamps under modern principles.

13. 1987

    World Heritage Site

    UNESCO inscribes the Athens Acropolis under all five cultural criteria, a near-unique distinction reflecting its universal cultural significance.

14. 2009

    New Acropolis Museum

    The new Acropolis Museum opens at the foot of the south slope with a glass-walled third-floor gallery shaped to receive the Elgin Marbles upon return.

Detailed History

Construction of the Parthenon began in 447 BC during the Periclean rebuilding of the Acropolis. After the Persian Wars destroyed the older temple complex in 480 BC, Athens dominated the Delian League and used league funds to finance an unprecedented building campaign on the Acropolis. The architects Iktinos and Kallikrates designed the Parthenon and the master sculptor Phidias supervised the decoration. The temple was effectively complete in 438 BC and the sculptural program was finished in 432 BC, just as the Peloponnesian War was breaking out. About 20,000 cubic meters of Pentelic marble was hauled 16 kilometers from the quarries of Mount Pentelikon. The cult statue at the heart of the temple — Phidias' chryselephantine Athena Parthenos, 12 meters tall — was lost in late antiquity, but the temple itself remained standing. In the 5th-6th centuries the Parthenon was converted into a Byzantine Orthodox church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, with the female cult of Athena handed over to the Theotokos. The Latin Empire of the Fourth Crusade reconsecrated it as a Roman Catholic church in 1204, and in 1456 the Ottoman conquest of Athens turned it into a mosque, complete with a minaret. On 26 September 1687 a Venetian artillery shell under Francesco Morosini struck an Ottoman gunpowder magazine stored inside the cella; the resulting explosion blew off the roof, the central section of the cella and most of the east and west pediments — the single greatest catastrophe to ancient Greek sculpture. Between 1801 and 1812 Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Sublime Porte, removed about half of the surviving frieze, pediment sculpture and metopes under contested Ottoman authorization, sending them to England (now in the British Museum, with Greece pursuing return). After Greek independence in 1832 the Acropolis became a national archaeological site. Major restoration campaigns followed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (notably under Nikolaos Balanos, 1898-1933). The current EMA / ESMA programme began in 1975 and continues today, dismantling Balanos-era reinforced-concrete repairs and replacing iron clamps with titanium ones. The Acropolis was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1987, satisfying all five cultural criteria — a near-unique distinction. The new Acropolis Museum opened in 2009 at the foot of the hill.

Cultural Significance

The Parthenon is the absolute canon of Western classical architecture and a cultural symbol of democratic Athens at its zenith. UNESCO inscribed the Acropolis under all five cultural criteria (i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi), a rare distinction signaling universal value: (i)(ii) for creative genius and architectural canon, (iii) as testimony to Attic civilization, (iv) as the supreme classical example, (vi) for embodying Western democratic values. As the wellspring of 18th-century Neoclassicism, its colonnade reappears in the U.S. Capitol, Paris's La Madeleine, Berlin's Altes Museum and countless banks worldwide — the world's most copied building. The Elgin Marbles dispute opened by Elgin in 1801 has become the symbolic case of cultural restitution. The 2009 New Acropolis Museum, with its full-scale gallery shaped to receive the frieze, was built explicitly to argue for return; 2024 negotiations between Greece and the British Museum remain live. The Parthenon's columns, pediments and frieze were planned as a single sculptural artwork, so partial returns are insufficient. Greek Independence Day (25 March) features a Parthenon ceremony with the military band as national rite.

Architectural Details

The Parthenon is a peripteral Doric temple of 30.86 m × 69.51 m, with 46 columns (8 × 17) — the canonical 8:17 short-to-long ratio. Columns are 10.4 m tall and 1.9 m at the base, 20 fluted, with the canonical 1:9 diameter-to-intercolumnar ratio. To overcome optical distortion the architects introduced corrections — entasis, an upward-curving stylobate, and columns inclined inward 7 cm — so 'every line that looks straight is a delicate curve'. About 20,000 cubic meters of Pentelic marble was hauled 16 km from Mount Pentelikon. The east and west pediments held mythological scenes (east: birth of Athena; west: Athena and Poseidon's contest for Athens), 92 metopes depicted the Centauromachy, Trojan War, Gigantomachy and Amazonomachy, and the unique 160 m Ionic frieze inside the colonnade depicted the Panathenaic procession in a single unified composition — an Ionic element on a Doric temple unified by Phidias. The interior comprised the pronaos, cella with Phidias' chryselephantine Athena Parthenos, and opisthodomos. At completion the exterior was painted polychrome; today's white appearance is 2,400 years of weathering.