History:

The Parthenon has gone through much wear through time, especially caused by humans.

- It used to have a statue of Athena, originally a temple for the godess. It was then turned into a church when paganism was outlawed.

- It was burned and blown up when Venetian forces attacked against the Ottoman Empire in 1687. The Parthenon was being used as a place for ammunition storage and one thing lead to another.

- After that, it was looted a ton. The most known looting of the Parthenon is the situation with Lord Elgin, who had the temple's sculptures and friezes removed and shipped to England from 1801 to 1812, even further desecrating the pieces of the temple in the process.

- After the destruction due to looting and continuous war, a reconstruction was pushed by Nikolaos Balanos. Casts of the pieces removed by Lord Elgin were made to replace them. Most improtantly, restoring the blocks that were destroyed in the explosion during 1687.

- Although the restoration was seen as an improvement during those times, modern restorers noted that this reconstruction did more damage to the Parthenon. The building is actually subtly curved, which makes each block unique. Balanos' reconstruction didn't try to account for this fact, as blocks were not properly placed in their correct positions, which sacrificed structural integrity.

- Another mistake made in this reconstruction was the use of iron clamps that were susceptible to corrosion. In the original construction of the building, the ancient Greeks used lead-coated iron, which has resistance to atmospheric corrosion. The iron Balanos used expanded, causing permanent damage to the blocks of the Parthenon.

- Starting in the mid-70s, the Acropolis Restoration Project (carried out by the Acropolis Restoration Service, YSMA, and the Committee for the Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments, ESMA) seeked to correct the blocks, trying to match every piece of marble fragment they can find to restore them to their original places, even using the same marble from the original quarry that supplied the Parthenon to fill in the gaps in the structure, correcting the damages done by the previous restoration.

- Recently in 2021, (what the article is about) a lot of Acropolis is now paved over and reinforced with concrete. These renovations were made by the same committees behind the Acropolis Restoration Project, seeking to accomodate visitors with disabilities.

- Typically when a site with such historic value gets renovated, heavy debate takes place before these decisions are made.

- Although the thought behind it is commendable, these choices were critiqued heavily by the academic community.

- The concrete covers up the history and importance of Acropolis in its entirety.

- It is important for people to understand the full history of Acropolis, not just a moment in time, as Manolis Korres was trying to do with this renovation, with intent to recreate an image of Acropolis in the fifth century during its golden age. Acropolis is seen as a "multi-temporal" monument.