For the first time in 20 years, Athenians see the Parthenon without scaffolding

“Mom, where did the Parthenon’s robust bars go?” That was the question nine-year-old Nikos asked his mother, Evgenia, arsenic they climbed from the Acropolis metro station connected the time the scaffolding astir the monument was yet removed.

The two often walk past the Sacred Rock – they unrecorded adjacent successful Koukaki – and when Evgenia recounted her son’s guiltless question, it became wide that astatine slightest two generations person ne'er seen the Parthenon’s western broadside unobstructed. For decades, it was surrounded by metallic structures arsenic portion of its long-running restoration.

“I unrecorded conscionable a fewer steps from the Acropolis, and for twenty years we saw the scaffolding each day,” she says. “It became something we got used to. My son had ne'er seen the monument immoderate different way. When helium asked maine that question, I realized helium didn’t cognize what the temple really looks similar without it.”

Another section laughs arsenic helium strolls down Dionysiou Areopagitou Street. “Sometimes I hide they’ve taken down the scaffolding,” helium says. “When I look up, for a infinitesimal I think, ‘What’s wrong?’ It’s similar the sky supra the metropolis has cleared.”

A fewer steps away, a radical of tourists snap photos of the monument – present escaped from the steel frames that had agelong covered it. They are among the archetypal visitors successful decades to spot the Parthenon this way. When asked if they announcement a difference, they look puzzled; they didn’t cognize that until recently, something had obscured the view.

“For someone visiting the Acropolis for the archetypal time, the lack of scaffolding makes nary quality – this is however they ideate the Parthenon,” says Giorgos, a tour usher astatine the site. “But for us, it feels similar something has been released. If you’ve been present adjacent erstwhile before, you can’t miss it.”

Anastasia, different usher waiting successful enactment with her group, shares the excitement. “It’s incredible,” she says. “When I saw the unit taking down the scaffolding, I couldn’t judge it was really happening.” She explains that now, thanks to the interplay of airy and shadow, “you tin spot the Parthenon’s frieze and different hidden details that used to beryllium hardly visible down the metallic framework.”

According to Rozalia Christodoulopoulou, an architect-engineer astatine the Culture Ministry’s Acropolis Restoration Service (YSMA), dismantling the western scaffolding began successful aboriginal July and was completed connected September 26 – a symbolic day marking the day of 1 of the darkest moments successful the Acropolis’s history: the 1687 Venetian bombardment.

During that siege, Venetian commandant Francesco Morosini ordered the shelling of the monument. The Parthenon, then used by the Ottomans arsenic a gunpowder magazine, was deed directly, causing a monolithic detonation that destroyed overmuch of its cardinal structure – the worst harm it ever suffered aft standing astir intact for centuries.

“At first, we restored the two corners of the pediment, dismantling and repositioning 120 architectural members,” Christodoulopoulou says. “Then came the mediate conception of the pediment, including the restoration of the orthostates of the tympanum – a task still successful progress. The restoration of the backing wall has besides been precocious completed.”

But work connected the Acropolis is acold from over. The temple will stay “free” for astir a period earlier new, lighter scaffolding is installed. “Since the authoritative start of the Parthenon’s restoration programme successful 1975, this is the archetypal clip – adjacent concisely – that the monument has stood wholly without scaffolding,” Christodoulopoulou says. “There person ever been structures successful spot for study, removal, and repair.”

The caller scaffolding, she notes, will beryllium lighter and much visually compatible with the monument, featuring modular sections that tin beryllium easy removed and replaced arsenic work continues done the spring.

“In the corridor down the western wing, caller scaffolding will beryllium installed to regenerate the marble extortion covering that portion of the temple,” she adds. “It will besides widen to the outer facade so the afloat restoration of the pediment tin beryllium completed. We judge that by the extremity of the archetypal 4th of 2026, the western broadside will yet beryllium revealed – for the archetypal clip successful much than two centuries – successful its entirety, allowing visitors to respect the cleanable proportions of the Parthenon’s astir iconic facade.”