The 1687 Explosion That Destroyed The Parthenon

 

 

Today, the Parthenon, built on the Acropolis of Athens between 447 and 438 B.CE, is more or less a collection of roofless pillars.

 However, although over the years there had been many changes; it was well-maintained and virtually intact well into the 17th century.

All that changed in 1687 with the Venetian siege of Athens; a result of the Ottomans (who conquered Athens in the 15th century), fighting the Venetian Republic, the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, for control of the Aegean Sea.

 On 21 September 1687, the Venetian army, led by Captain-General Francesco Morosini, who had gained power of the Peloponnese, before heading for Athens, landed at Piraeus.

 

 

This caused the Turks to retreat to The Acropolis, where they went on to store their gunpowder, in the Parthenon.

Morosini began shelling the Acropolis on September 23.

 On the 26th, what he later called a “fortunate shot”, an explosion took off the marble roof of the 2,000 year old building, igniting the store of gunpowder inside, sending the Parthenon sky high.

 

 

 Three hundred people were killed and Athens burned for two days.

The Venetians may have succeeded in taking the Acropolis and Athens but within a year the Turks were back.

The Venetian occupation accomplished little, except for temporarily forcing the Ottomans out; its only fame is for the horrendous damage it caused to the Parthenon.

 

The Parthenon

 

 

The Parthenon, a dazzling white marble temple on the Acropolis of Athens, dedicated to Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, arts, literature and war, after whom the city is named, was built between 447 and 432 B.C.

 

 

It was commissioned by the Greek statesman Pericles, in gratitude for the Greek victory over the Persian Empire during the Greco-Persian Wars, when the Delian League, an association of Greek city-states, headed by Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire, was at the peak of its power.

 

 

The Parthenon was built with Pentelic marble from the quarries on Mount Pentelikon, situated northeast of Athens, this white marble has faint yellow tint, which makes it shine with a golden hue under sunlight.

Ancient Greek sculptor, Phidias, supervised the building of the Parthenon and was also in charge of the sculptural decoration, architects Ictinos and Callicrates also lent a hand.

The Parthenon was home to an exceptional statue of Athena, known as Athena Parthenos, sculpted by Phidias.

 

 

 

 The statue no longer exists, however, thanks to surviving Roman reproductions; we have some idea of what he statue must have looked like.

It is said to have been carved from wood, covered in gold and ivory and standing around twelve meters tall. (39 feet).

As most ancient Greek temples, the Parthenon also functioned as the city treasury.

 

From Pagan to Christian to Muslim

 

Towards the end of the 6th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, after Greece was defeated by the Christian Byzantines, who forbade the worship of pagan, ancient Greek gods.

The Parthenon remained a Christian church until 1458 A.D. when the Ottomans seized Athens and converted the Parthenon into a mosque, however, they did keep numerous Christian paintings and artifacts intact.

 

The Morean War:

The siege of the Acropolis

 

 

The Morean War, also known as the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War, fought between 1684–1699, as part of the conflict known as the “Great Turkish War”, was fought between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire.

The Venetians, under command of Königsmarck, landed on the Peloponnese peninsula (then known as “Morea”) in southern Greece and after numerous campaigns, succeeded in taking it from the Ottomans, who were then occupying Greece.

However, after realizing their position in the Morea was rather shaky, as the Ottoman strongholds of Thebes and Negroponte (Chalkis) served as excellent bases for them to invade and retake the peninsula, the Venetian commanders, under Francesco Morosini, decided to extend their campaign into eastern Central Greece, with Athens as their first objective.

On the 21st of September 1687, Königsmarck’s army landed at Eleusis, while the Venetian fleet entered Piraeus resulting in the siege of the Acropolis taking place on 23–29 September.

The Ottoman Turks had fortified the Acropolis and despite having had experience of the dangers of this, after the 1656 explosion that badly damaged the Propylaea, used the Parthenon as a gunpowder store and as a shelter for members of the local Turkish community.

On 26 September 1687 a Venetian mortar round, fired from the Hill of Philopappos, blew up the gunpowder store, taking the roof off the Parthenon, destroying the centre portion and reducing columns to rubble.

 

 

 

 According to Greek architect and archaeologist Kornilia Chatziaslani:

“Three of the sanctuary’s four walls nearly collapsed and three-fifths of the sculptures from the frieze fell. Nothing of the roof apparently remained in place. Six columns from the south side fell, eight from the north, as well as whatever remained from the eastern porch, except for one column. The columns brought down with them the enormous marble architraves, triglyphs, and metopes”

Around three hundred were killed in the explosion, many by falling debris and others when sparks from the explosion ignited fires which destroyed their homes.

 

 

The Ottomans Reclaim Morea

 

 

The Venetian victory was, however, short-lived; this was the only time they triumphed over the Ottomans, who, in 1718, during the Ottoman – Venetian War (1714–1718), also known as the Second Morean War, the last conflict between the two powers, the entire Peloponnese (Morea ), was retaken by the Ottomans.

Although defeated, Morosini was determined not to go home empty-handed and so set about dismantling some of the ancient artifacts from the ruins of the Parthenon but as the statues of Poseidon and the chariot of Nike were being removed from the western pediment, they fell to the ground where they smashed to smithereens.

The Venetians cut their losses and made do with a few marble lions, one of which was the famous Piraeus Lion, which had given the port its medieval name “Porto Leone” and today guards the entrance of The Venetian Arsenal, Venice, Italy.

 

 

 

After recapturing the Acropolis the Turks used rubble from the explosion to build a smaller mosque within the shell of the ruined Parthenon.

 

 

 For the next hundred and fifty years many of the remaining sculptures and statues, including one of the Caryatids of the Erechtheion, were stolen and shattered remnants, called spolia in Greek, from which derives the phrase “spoils of war”, were taken for building material.

 

Aftermath:

 Philhellenism and the Grand Tour

 

 

Greece, in the 18th century, though still under Ottoman control until 1821, was a calm period, allowing many Europeans to travel to Athens.

This is when Philhellenism burst onto the European scene during the 18^th century with “The Grand Tour”, a tradition started in around 1660, which came to a head at the turn of the 19^th century, saw young aristocrats touring Europe; France, Switzerland, Italy and Greece.

They stayed for months, sometimes years at a time (depending on how their bank balance was holding up), rather like a modern gap-year, firmly put Greece on the map.

The Grand Tour was a chance, to see and get to know, first-hand, the wonders of Greece and the roots of Western civilization, previously only read about in books and seen in the paintings of the great ancient Greek painters.

 On returning home after “The Grand tour”, the travelers, who were now totally hooked on Greece, wanted to tell the whole world what they had seen and experienced.

 They wrote books, they drew pictures; they painted masterpieces of the mysterious temples, amazing Greek sculpture, and the delightful little Greek islands which seemed to float atop the deep blue Aegean Sea.

These new ‘philhellenes’ threw quotes from great Greek philosophers  into their conversation, they told of the now famous Greek hospitality, philotimo, the strange exotic dishes, the free and easy lifestyle and academics introduced classical studies into the educational system.

The result was, everyone wanted to visit Greece and if that wasn’t possible, then they learned all they could through reading about it, the next best thing!

By 1821, thanks to The Grand Tour, Greek literature and knowledge of Greece in general, thousands, from all over Europe were in love with Greece and rushed to her aid in The Greek War of Independence against the Turks.

European support for Greece was massive; hundreds left their homes to fight alongside the Greek palikaria.

They took part in war operations, raising funds, creating literary works or works of art, in order to promote the Greek cause, a sort of modern day public relations campaign, if you will.

 Philhellenic societies sprung up like wildfire, the first in Stuttgart, Germany, followed by Greek societies around the country, the French and Swiss rallied; The London Philhellenic Committee was born in 1823.

 

The Parthenon Marbles

 

 

In 1801,Thomas Bruce; the 7th Earl of Elgin and British Ambassador of Constantinople, visited the Acropolis of Athens, which was under Ottoman occupation at the time and proceeded to deface the pride of Athens, the Parthenon.

Elgin claimed that he obtained a firman (edict) from the kaymakam (Ottoman official), permitting him to make casts and drawings of the artifacts on the Acropolis and to take away any of the sculptures he desired that were lying around on the ground.

The validity or tangibility of this written permit from the Ottomans, to this day, has not been proved.

From 1800 to 1803, Elgin, removed the marble friezes and several other sculptures and shipped them to London, England, where they are now on public display in the British Museum.

 

 

Elgin removed nearly half of the surviving sculptures; twenty one figures from the East and West pediments and seventy five meters of the Parthenon Frieze were hacked from the walls of the majestic temple, even one of the six Caryatids was removed, much to the disgust of Lord Byron, who likened Elgin’s behavior to vandalism and looting.

 

 

Elgin had the stolen loot shipped to England, where he sold it to the British government in 1816, who handed it over to the British Museum.

 

The Ongoing Acropolis Restoration Project

 

 

In 1975 the Greek government began restoring the rapidly-deteriorating Acropolis and the Parthenon, which was now one of the country’s national treasures.

 They appointed an archaeological committee called the Acropolis Restoration Project.

Led by Greek architect Manolis Korres, the committee has patiently catalogued every relic to be found amongst the ruins, using computer technology to identify their original location.

The restoration team plans to repair original Parthenon artifacts with modern, weather-proof materials and when the need arises, new Pentelic marble, from the quarry where the original marble was obtained, at  Mount Pentelikon, situated northeast of Athens, will be used.

The Parthenon will not be returned to its original state but will remain a semi-ruin, allowing its rich and diverse history to shine through.