GREECE ATTICA ATHENS ACROPOLIS PARTHENON

The Parthenon, temple of Athena Parthenos, is without any doubt the most perfect Doric temple ever built, the culmination of classical architecture. Even its ruins are of superb beauty, although nearly all of its sculptures have disappeared. Nothing is left of the heavy colours, of the bronze and gold decorations, the marble floors and the wooden ceiling. But what you still sense today is the power of its proportions, equalled by no other building in the world. It is the sublime art of pure gravity mastered by architectural refinements.

In 447 BC, under the general supervision of the sculptor Phidias, the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates worked on this temple. Within only nine years it was ready for the cult statue of Athena to be dedicated in its cella. In 432 BC the magnificent sculptural work was also finished and remained more or less unaltered for nearly 2000 years.

The monument was preserved in a good condition for centuries, albeit being turned into a Byzantine church, a Latin church and later a Muslim mosque. But when the Venetian admiral Morosini sieged the acropolis in 1687, large parts of its southern side have been blasted away by his bombardement.