The Athenian Parthenon is perhaps the most well
recognized of all the ruins of the ancient world, but how exactly did it become a ruin?
Was it some ancient battle? Was it some natural disaster in antiquity? Well it
was neither. It might surprise you to find out that the Parthenon remained
largely intact into the early modern era. The 1687 destruction of the Parthenon
is history that deserves to be remembered. The temple we call the Parthenon was constructed
during the Golden Age of Athens in the 5th Century BC replacing an earlier, but unfinished temple
that was destroyed by the Persians after the Greek defeated Thermopylae. Athens was at its
height at the head of the Delian League which made it a virtual Athenian Empire. Much of the
famous Acropolis was built under the Athenian leader and general Pericles. Jeffrey Hurwit, a
historian and author of The Athenian Acropolis explains that Athens under Pericles wanted to
promote itself as the greatest of Greek cities. The temples built at this time likely
include the Temple of Athena Polias, The Great Gate to the Acropolis and the Temple
to Athena Nike in addition to the Parthenon. The earliest sources called the building the Temple,
and Parthenon seems to have been associated with the giant statue of Athena Parthenos housed
within. Parthenos, meaning maiden virgin or unmarried woman. The temple was built under the
supervision of the artist Phidias who sculpted the 42-foot statue as well as the architects Ictinus
and Callicrates. Construction began in 447 and was largely completed only nine years later in
438 although decorations continued to be added for years afterwards. The Parthenon was considered
a triumph of architecture even when it was first built. The entire building is subtly curved inward
including the columns, and the columns themselves are fatter in the middle, likely to counteract
the illusion from a distance that columns have a waist. Hurwit wrote that, “The Parthenon is
a building, but is also almost a sculpture.” That it has been described as the culmination
of the development of the Doric order, a type of architecture that Greeks were famous for, as
well as combining ionic architectural features. Slight slopes allow the building to effectively
shed rain water and it was built to withstand earthquakes. A modern engineer said the design
has excellent seismic performance properties. It survived a significant earthquake in 426 BC almost
unscathed. It was also filled with a large number of masterfully made sculptures and carved freezes
which depicted various parts of myth and history. It was not entirely left alone in the history that
followed. A fire damaged the statue and temple battle in the 3rd Century A.D and destroyed
the sanctuary's roof which was replaced. The building was damaged in 276 when Athens was sacked by pirates. Because don't
all good stories involve pirates? For most of a thousand years it
remained dedicated to Athena, but the already ancient building was weathering
more than just storms, but waves of history. Greece became a part of the Roman Empire which
associated Athena with the Roman deity Minerva, and in turn the Roman Empire slowly became
christianized. Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II decreed in 435 that all pagan temples be closed;
however the Parthenon remained a center of pagan resistance. At some point the great statue
was looted and taken to Constantinople where it was lost. The temple was first converted to a
Christian church a few decades after the decree, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was a major
Orthodox church in the Byzantine era visited by pilgrims and emperors alike. The Fourth Crusade
saw the region ruled by the Latin Empire and the Orthodox church became instead a Catholic one. In
1456, Ottoman Turkish forces invaded Athens and the Acropolis itself was besieged. The Parthenon
was transformed into a mosque before 1500, although the circumstances are unclear. According
to archaeologist Samuel Walter Miller it was converted because the Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror
found the Athenians plotting against his rule. Each of these successive eras came with
changes, rooms were converted, walls were built between columns and various pieces were
vandalized for being too pagan; graffiti and white paint covered over other pieces. A tower
was built and the Muslims then added a minaret, however most of the building was the same as
it had been when Pericles walked its halls, with many of the original freezes and sculptures.
A Turkish traveler in 1667 marveled at its construction writing that it was, “a work
less of human hands than of Heaven itself.” A French artist in 1674 was able to
sketch its sculptural decorations; they remained some of the only images
of the lost pieces of the Temple. Some two Millennia after its construction
it was still one of the true wonders of the ancient world that visitors could still
experience, but that was not to last. Beginning in the late 1600s the Ottoman Empire
began pressing into Europe. In the 1680s Ottomans attacked the Austrian Habsburg monarchy.
The Turks nearly captured Vienna before Christian Alliance stalled the Ottoman invasion. To face the
threat of the Muslim Ottomans, Pope Innocent XI initiated a Holy League, which included the Holy
Roman Empire, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Venetian Republic and Russia. The Great
Turkish War, also called the Wars of the Holy League, was actually a series of wars between
the Ottomans and the European powers. Before the Great Turkish War the Ottomans and Venetians had
already fought a series of conflicts, beginning with the Venetian participation in the Crusade of
Nicopolis in 1396. In 1463, the two powers fought the first of what would become seven wars, largely
fought in the Aegean, Greece and various islands. In 1684, the Venetians took advantage of the
Ottoman War against the Habsburgs to invade the Mauryan Peninsula better known as the Greek
Peloponnese in the Mauryan War, it was meant to avenge the Venetian defeat in the previous war
where the Ottomans had taken control of Crete. The Mauryan War was the only one of the many wars
where Venice declared war on the Ottomans rather than the other way around. The Venetians were
able to successfully push the Ottomans out of the Peloponnese and by 1687 the Venetian forces
were advancing into Central Greece to secure the peninsula. On September 21st 1687, a Venetian
Army landed near Athens while the Venetian Fleet entered the Athenian Port of Piraeus. The Ottomans
evacuated Athens but the garrison retreated to the Acropolis to wait for Ottoman reinforcements.
The Siege of the Acropolis was devastating to the ancient buildings that remained there. The
Ottomans destroyed the Temple of Athena Nike near the Parthenon for the placement of cannons
while the Venetians placed cannons and mortars on the heights around the city to prepare to bombard
the Turkish soldiers. On the 25th of September, a Venetian shell destroyed the vaunted gateway
to the Acropolis when a powder magazine exploded. The Venetian invasion was led by General Francesco
Morosini and Swedish officer Otto Wilhelm Konigsmarck. Morosini had led the Venetians to
victory over the Peloponnesus and he achieved great fame thanks to the successful campaign,
becoming the first person to have a bronze bust placed in the Great Hall in Venice while he was
still alive. He was said to dress only in red and never went into action without his cat beside
him… because don't tell good stories involve cats! The Venetians bombarded the Turkish
positions on the Acropolis for six days beginning on September 23rd. On
September 26th a mortar fired a round which arced over the Acropolis to
land squarely on the Parthenon and apparently through a weak spot on the roof as
previous shots had rolled off the angled tiles. Hitting the monument was tragedy enough however
the Turks had been used in the temple as a powder magazine. Greek architect and archaeologist Cornea
Castillaslani described the ensuing explosion. “Three of the sanctuary's four walls nearly
collapsed and three-fifths of the sculptures from the freeze fell. Nothing of the roof apparently
remained in place, six columns on the south side fell, eight from the north as well as whatever
remained from the eastern porch except one column. With them fell the enormous marble carvings which
had stood for two thousand years.” The spectacular explosion killed 300 people, not just soldiers
but civilians who had huddled in the Acropolis for safety. Fires were started throughout Athens and
chunks of marble fell upon the Turkish defenders. In his report back to Venice Morosini called the
shot miraculous or fateful. Morosini specifically praised the Count of San Feliz who had
been in charge of the Venetian morters. Konigsmarck's feelings are only recorded in a
letter from one of the general's wife's companions who wrote, “How reluctantly Count Konigsmarck
saw himself compelled to destroy the beautiful temple. The bombs did their work and this temple
can never again be re-erected in this world.” A 17th century biography of Morosini had the
general bemoan Athens cultural heritage which is, “Now reduced.” The dramatic explosion did not
however induce the Turks to surrender. They held on through two more days of bombardment finally
surrendering when an Ottoman relief army was repulsed on September 28th. The Turkish Defenders
surrendered on the condition that they could be transported to Smyrna. There has long been
debate about whether the shots were deliberate, that is whether the Venetians were aiming at the
Parthenon or not. There's a report from a German officer's diary that claims the Venetians captured
a deserter who told them about the powder magazine in the temple because the Turks believe that the
Christians would not do any harm to the temple. The account goes on to say that several mortars
were directed against the Parthenon itself. Other authors pointed to Venetian reports that the
Count of San Feliz was reprimanded for failing to hit his targets, implying that the mortars were
not accurate enough to deliberately target the sanctuary. One report describes the fateful
round flying “capriciously and irregularly.” It's difficult to know for certain with the
surviving sources, however it's clear that the Acropolis was the target of systematic bombardment
hoping to quickly displace the Turkish defenders. Perhaps the greatest tragedy was how little
capturing Athens did for the Venetians. They were unable to protect their power far from the
city, and only six months later they abandoned the city altogether. The terrible destruction
also began years of looting. The Venetians attempted to loot several statues including
sculptures of Poseidon and Athena's Horses. The Great Lion Statue that stood in Piraeus
was removed to Venice where it remains to this day. Especially valuable remnants were
sold or looted by the Turks when they returned and pieces of the ruin were used to build a
mosque inside the shell of the old building. True archeology and study of the ruins
only followed a century later, and in 1801, the Earl of Elgin supposedly obtained an edict
from the Turkish Sultan which allowed him to take the so-called Elgin marbles, an act
which has provided continuing controversy. Sometimes, maybe all too often, the plot of
history is written as a tragedy. The Parthenon, one of the most extraordinary buildings ever
built by humanity and an amazing record of a lost civilization, survived almost unscathed
for millennia. It served as a worship place for multiple religions only to be unceremoniously
destroyed in a war that almost no one remembers. That accomplished almost nothing. The Ottomans
reconquered the Peloponnese by 1714, and the Republic of Venice itself ceased to exist by 1797.
They are forgotten, but their damage remains. And repairing or replacing that damage is
likely an impossible task because even the record of the decorations is incomplete, and the
pieces are now dispersed and lost. The best we can do is view reproductions that are based on
conjecture like the one in Nashville Tennessee. And yet the amazing ruin that is left
stands as a testament to our past, and evokes the words of Pericles, “Mighty indeed
are the marks and monuments of our Empire.” I hope you enjoyed this episode of the
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