The architect of the Parthenon in Athens

At the top of the Athenian Acropolis, there are ruins, which used to be a pagan temple in honor of the goddess Athena, and Christian - in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and, finally, a Muslim mosque. They are seen at a glance even by those who have never been to Greece, so their photographs are replicated. It is the ruins of one of the most famous temples in the world. His name is the Parthenon.

Temple laying and construction

The ancient Greeks knew how to be grateful. To the patroness of her city, the goddess Athena Parthenos, they decided to erect a temple, in gratitude for her help in the battle with the Persians at Marathon.

For its construction, they chose the sublime and fortified part of the upper city - the Acropolis, and in 488 BC they made a solemn ceremony. The architect of the Parthenon chose this place not by chance. Earlier here there were earlier temples built in honor of other pagan gods.

The size of the former temples was small, and for their construction it was not necessary to increase the area of the upper part of the hill. In this case, it was supposed to erect something grandiose, and for this purpose it was necessary to build a retaining wall on the south side and lay the calcareous blocks in its base, to raise the edge of the construction site by 7 meters.

Work continued for eight years, and the second drum of columns was built, when the city was captured by the Persians. The fire of the fire killed the fruits of eight years of work, and construction has not been resumed for more than 30 years.

Construction of a new church

Work continued in 447 BC. The power in Athens then belonged to Pericles, an arrogant and ambitious ruler. The construction of the temple was part of the plan he had conceived, as a result of which Athens had to take the leading place, both in the military sphere, and in the economic and cultural. The fulfillment of the plan was also facilitated by the fact that by the time the treasury of the Delos Sea Union was transferred to the city, which facilitated the solution of financial problems related to construction. And there really were problems.

The history has kept curious information. Pericles appropriated 450 silver talents from the military budget for the work. The size of the sum can be judged from the fact that the construction of a single warship in those years cost one talent. Consequently, the cost of building a temple is comparable to the cost of creating a huge fleet of 450 ships. When the scale of costs became known to the citizens, they accused Pericles of being extravagant. To this the ruler replied that he was ready to pay the expenses to his personal account, but in this case he reserves the right to perpetuate his own name on all elements of the structure . The people did not want to give glory to the ruler and agreed to finance the project from the city treasury.

Who built the Parthenon?

This question arises, probably, for everyone who first sees the Athenian architectural masterpiece. The honor of its creation belongs to an outstanding architect, whose names have reached us - Iktina and Kallikrat. According to some sources, Carpion and his assistants also took part in the work. The famous sculptor Phidias controlled the general course of work, but his main duty was to create a sculptural decoration of the temple, which at its grandiose dimensions was a very ambitious task. Thus, speaking of who built the Parthenon, one should mean not one architect, but a whole group of co-authors.

Changes in the appearance of the temple

What the Parthenon looked like in its original appearance is now difficult to say with complete certainty. The fact is that over the course of his long life he repeatedly changed his appearance. Even in the 2nd century BC in the temple there was a strong fire, after which significant restoration work was required. His grandeur was also affected by the evil will of the rulers. For example, in 298 BC, the then-ruled Lahar, who went down in history as an unbridled tyrant, ordered the removal of gold jewelry from the sculpture of Athena.

The founder of the Parthenon erected a temple in honor of the pagan goddess. But in the history of Greece there came a period, which is customarily called Byzantine, and fate was pleased that in 426 AD the pagan temple would become a Christian church. Originally it was consecrated in honor of Saint Sophia. The architect of the Parthenon did not presume, of course, that his offspring were destined to embody all the elements inherent in the architecture of Christian churches, but it happened that way.

Reconstruction of the church according to the Christian canons

According to the tradition established in the ancient centuries, the entrance to the pagan temple was on the east side. The architect of the Parthenon in Athens, when designing the building, took this requirement into account. But according to the canons of Christian architecture, the entrance is always made from the west side, and the altar is placed from the east. This is the law. In the process of rebuilding the temple, in accordance with the new requirements, an altar apse was built on the site of the previous entrance, and the entrance, respectively, was moved to the west side. In addition, other changes were made to the layout of the building. In the south - western part of the church a bell tower was erected. Completion of the reconstruction was in 662 consecration of the church in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Almost eight centuries under his vaults Christian prayers were raised, until in 1460 the city was captured by Turkish troops.

The destruction of the temple

Together with the whole country, the Temple of Parthenon experienced difficult times. Greece was under occupation, and the Christian shrine was turned into a Muslim mosque. In 27 years, the Venetian army under the command of F. Morosini tried to storm Athens. Defensively, the Turks used the Parthenon as a powder storehouse. This had disastrous consequences for the building. The red-hot core, released from the Venetian gun, breaking through the roof, caused a terrible explosion. As a result, the whole central part of the building collapsed. After this, no repairs were made. To top it all off, the locals took apart the fragments of marble, from which they burned lime.

The final damage to the temple took place at the beginning of the XIX century. The Ambassador of Great Britain at the Ottoman Court received permission to export the sculptures preserved in it. Since then, for ten years, the creations of the ancient Greek sculptors left Athens to become part of the expositions of the world's largest museums.

Restoration of the colonnade of the temple

In 1928, work began, the purpose of which was to establish the fallen blocks and columns of the Parthenon in the same place. To carry out the work, a scientific commission was created, which included specialists from different countries. Their cooperation lasted two years. As a result, the northern colonnade was partially restored in the form designed by its architect Parthenon.

How did the temple look like in ancient times? It was built according to the canons of the classical Greek temple - a rectangle surrounded by columns. Despite its massiveness, he looked elegant due to the strict planning of his layout. The temple was decorated with sculptures of the great Phidias, and in the center towered a thirteen-meter sculpture of the goddess Athena, adorned with gold and ivory.

It is generally believed that the architect of the Parthenon built a building that is a masterpiece among Doric style buildings. Once the Athenian ruler Pericles, convincing the intractable townspeople to shell out for the construction of the temple, predicted that he would be the pride of the Greeks for many and many centuries. His rightness was proved by time.