Acropolis temples get revamped
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBY56d__IjQAthens' Parthenon scaffold-free for first time in years
Tourists walk past the Parthenon on Acropolis hill in Athens May 18, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Pascal Rossignol
ATHENS (Reuters Life!) - Visitors to Athens have a rare window of opportunity to see the showpiece Parthenon temple on the ancient Acropolis without scaffolding for the first time in nearly 30 years as a major restoration work nears completion.
The Greek government launched a project to restore the Parthenon and other buildings on the world heritage site in 1975, but it was not until 1983 that work started.
Scaffolding has been up somewhere around the ancient temple ever since. But from now until September, the exterior of the Parthenon will be scaffold-free.
Building the Parthenon took nine years from 447 BC and the sculptural decorations took another 10 years to complete. Restoration has already taken longer than it took to build.
"We treat every piece of marble like a piece of art so we have to respect it," Mary Ioannidou, the head of restoration told Reuters during a tour of the temple.
"The ancient Greeks had the possibility that if a block failed, to leave it and take another one, but we can't do it so we have to treat it with great respect."
Over the years, the Parthenon has suffered from fire, war, revolution, looting, misguided restoration and pollution.
It became a church for nearly 1,000 years and served as a mosque under the Ottomans for nearly 400 years after that.
The greatest blow to the structure though came in 1687 when a Venetian mortar ignited the Ottoman Turkish gunpowder store inside and widespread looting followed. British Ambassador Lord Elgin then removed large chunks of the sculptures from 1801.
Between 1898 and 1938, restoration workers rebuilt large parts of the building and concreted in parts of the columns and blocks that were missing. But they used iron ties to hold the blocks together and replaced many in the wrong place.
The iron ties have since rusted and as they did so expanded causing cracks to appear. The ancients also used iron ties, but coated them in lead to prevent rust. They have lasted well.
The team of archaeologists, marble cutters, architects, and civil and chemical engineers, dismantled 1,852 metric tons of marble and began the painstaking task of attempting to put it back again in the right place, adding other fragments they found.
"It's like a huge puzzle," said Ioannidou with a wry smile.
Titanium is now used to tie the blocks and columns together which is highly resistant to corrosion.
New marble has been crafted to fill in some of the gaps left by the concrete and allow blocks of the original marble to be returned to their place on the Parthenon's stonework.
The original quarry for the marble on Mount Penteli is now itself a protected historical site, but marble has been cut from the other side of the same mountain.
"It's almost the same but not exactly the same," said Ioannidou. The new marble stands out in a much lighter color than the original.
"One of the principles of our restoration is not to cheat the visitor. Everyone can understand the parts that are ancient and those that are original," said Ioannidou.
As for the color, that will fade. "If you come here in 10 years the color will be almost the same," she said.
In September though, the scaffolding will be up again on the western facade and that project will last at least another three years. Efforts to piece together the walls of the inner chamber of the temple are already underway.
For some, restoring the Parthenon is their life's work. Marble-cutter Ignatius Hiou has worked there for 18 years.
"If I could do this until the day I die, I will be happy," he said.
(Additional reporting by Deborah Kyvrikosaios; Editing by Paul Casciato)
=================By Nicholas Paphitis (CP) – 3 days ago
ATHENS, Greece — Greece's economic problems erupted at the country's best-known ancient site Tuesday, as unpaid cultural heritage workers heckled the country's culture minister during a tour of newly completed restoration work on the Acropolis.
Amid goggling tourists, about 100 protesters with bullhorns and banners pressed Pavlos Geroulanos to pay wages outstanding for up to 16 months and to renew their soon-to-expire contracts. The demonstration ended peacefully after the minister conceded that many of the demands were "absolutely justified," and promised action on the delayed pay.
Greece is locked in a major debt crisis, and this month avoided bankruptcy by the skin of its teeth with a €110 billion ($136 billion) rescue package from EU countries and the International Monetary Fund.
In return, Athens agreed to slash pensions and civil service pay, while raising consumer taxes in an effort to boost lagging revenues.
But contract culture ministry workers, used by successive governments to cheaply plug essential needs, feel doubly cheated.
"I haven't been paid for nearly a year now, and they say they won't renew our contracts in October," said Apostolos Tseklimas, 60, a labourer at the Marathon ancient site working on contracts since 2001. "It's as if we count for nothing. I have four children, and need to work for another year to get a full pension."
Conservation technician Ioanna Zervaki said the ministry has not hired any full-time workers in her field for years, relying instead on contract employees to get the work done. Contract workers are considered the lowest ranking civil servants in Greece.
"Despite my 10 years experience with the ministry in this field, I have no chance at all of getting a full-time job," she said.
Protest organizers said about 1,500 ministry contract workers faced similar problems.
Despite the crisis, the government has pledged to continue with the massive Acropolis project, which started in the 1970s and is expected to continue for at least another decade.
Geroulanos said the work would be mostly funded by EU aid — which accounted for roughly 33 of the €43 million spent since 2001.
"Very significant funds have already been spent, and that will continue," Geroulanos said.
Built on a low hill at the height of ancient Athenian glory, the Acropolis monuments have suffered over the past 2,500 years from war, weather, vandalism, restoration errors and — most recently — air pollution. Most of the surviving sculptures have been removed to a new museum next to the ancient citadel, although 14 original carved marble slabs remain on the Parthenon.
Geroulanos spoke under the ruined 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple, where ministry workers recently dismantled, conserved and reassembled eight of the 46 towering marble columns that initially formed a rectangle around the building and propped up the roof.
The colonnade survived intact until 1687, when a besieging Venetian army's artillery blew up the Parthenon — used as a gunpowder store by the defending Turkish garrison. The eight columns on the temple's northern side were first restored in the 1920s, in a well-meant effort that caused problems when iron rusted and expanded, cracking the ancient marble.
Crews are now preparing to tackle the western part of the temple, while future work will include rebuilding the internal marble walls to a height of about three meters (10 feet), and removing a concrete floor installed to protect the original marble pavement.
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Acropolis occupied by protesters for second time this month
As the country's economic crisis deepens, culture ministry workers and public art institutions feel the pain
By Helen Stoilas | From issue 214, June 2010
Published online 25 May 10 (News)
May Day: Communist Party protesters unite at the Acropolis in May
new york. Greek culture ministry staff took over the Acropolis Tuesday as President Karolos Papoulias and Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos attended the completion of a decade-long restoration on the ancient temple. The workers, who are on short-term contracts, were protesting over more than a year's worth of back pay and to have their temporary positions made permanent. The demonstration ended peacefully with Geroulanos assuring his employees that a resolution to settle the payment backlog was being voted on in Parliament, and that a new civil service hiring procedure would be put in place when contracts expire in October.
Tuesday's protest is just the most recent symptom of continuing funding problems in the culture ministry. An exhibition by Russian-born, US-based artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, is an early casualty of the Greek economic crisis. Deep cuts in the nation's cultural budget, which are part of a package of austerity measures, has resulted in the postponement of the autumn show, "due to the extremely high cost of the exhibition and the very difficult financial situation" according to a museums spokeswoman. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, director Anna Kafetsi said the museum has had a 18.8% reduction in the funding it receives from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as well as difficulty finding private sponsorship. "There is no money for new acquisitions but we will continue our exhibition schedule with lower productions costs," said Kafetsi. And although it has not had to make any staff cuts, it will not be hiring any new staff for some time. In spite of the cutbacks, the museum opened three new exhibitions on 11 May, including a solo show of Chinese artist Yang Fudong, and says it is receiving many visitors.
Strikes in Athens at the beginning of May also included culture ministry workers and resulted in the closure of museums and archaeological sites, including the Acropolis, which was occupied by members of the Greek Communist Party who hung banners on the Sacred Rock demanding that the "Peoples of Europe Rise Up".
To secure a €110bn bailout loan from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, the Greek government plans to implement strict austerity measures to cut the deficit from 13.6% to 3% by 2014. Budget cuts resulted in the temporary closure of around 40 museums and ancient sites earlier this year because of staff shortages. This included the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which shut 16 galleries due to a lack of guards, and the White Tower in Thessaloniki.
The culture ministry has around 4,200 vacant positions, as contracts of short-term employees expired at the end of 2009. In January it cancelled a drive to hire more than 2,500 temporary staff. (Anonymous sources told the Greek press that civil servants had been trying to secure jobs for their children and relatives.)
The repeated strikes and closures have had a severe impact on the tourism industry, which accounts for 17% of gross domestic product and one in five jobs. The government has set up a crisis committee headed by the Greek National Tourism Organisation. During a visit by the Turkish prime minister last month, Greece's culture minister and his Turkish counterpart signed a joint declaration to promote tourism and cultural co-operation. The partnership includes sharing expertise to preserve monuments, working together to protect cultural property, prevent illegal excavations and antiquities trafficking, and archaeological co-operation in the field.
There are also plans to organise exhibitions of contemporary art by Turkish artists in Greece and vice versa. Athens' Benaki Museum unintentionally anticipated this collaboration with an exhibition of photographs of Istanbul by Ara Güler (until 25 July), a Turkish photojournalist of Armenian descent, which opened just before the declaration was signed.
The arrival of the first installment of the bailout loan at the end of May was overshadowed by the resignation of Angela Gerekou, Greece's deputy minister of culture and tourism, after it emerged that her husband, a popular singer in Greece, owed more than €5m in unpaid taxes and fines.
Meanwhile, Greek museums have been attempting to regain some sense of normality. Fifty-four venues celebrated International Museum Day on 18 May with free admission and events.
"The country is in a state of emergency but I'm certain and optimistic that we will get out of this crisis and museums, like all of us as citizens, will have to adjust to the new situation. We will do things with the means that we have. I'm positive that our country will manage to get out of this crisis with persistence and creativity," said Kafetsi.
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Acropolis works to go ahead despite Greek crisis: minister
The Greek debt crisis will not compromise restoration work on the country's best-known monument, the Acropolis, the culture minister said on Tuesday.
Pavlos Geroulanos said the restoration of the 2,500-year-old temples, which began in the 1970s, will continue to draw on European funds for support.
"The Acropolis works take time," the minister told reporters during a visit to the monument with Greek President Carolos Papoulias.
"Their continuation has already been decided and will be financed by the fourth EU structural support package as arranged," the minister said.
Greece is battling an unprecedented debt crisis and was recently saved from bankruptcy thanks to a 110-billion-euro bailout loan from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The latest phase of restoration works on the ancient citadel began in 2001 and cost 42.6 million euros (53 million dollars), the project supervisor said on Tuesday.
Most of the effort focused on the Acropolis' iconic Parthenon temple where archaeologists disassembled and cleaned 219 pieces of masonry to repair damage done by previous restorers in the early 20th century.
At the time, the restorers had used cement and iron which later rusted. This was replaced with titanium and crews also correctly aligned architectural elements which had been previously misplaced, project supervisor Maria Ioannidou said.
"We have carried out a restoration of which I believe we can be proud," Ioannidou told state television NET.
"This was the greatest project ever carried out on the Acropolis, she said.
Scaffolding from the Parthenon's northern wing was removed Tuesday for the first time in a decade. Work will now proceed on its western wing.
The marble temple was badly damaged in a Venetian siege in 1687, and a large number of the sculptures that remained were removed to London in the early 19th century on the orders of British diplomat Lord Elgin.
The sculptures are now kept at the British Museum which has long refused to return them to Greece.
Ioannidou said improvements were also made to the Acropolis's monumental entrance, the Propylaia, where archaeologists were able to rebuild a larger part of the covered gateway and added two new marble drums.
"Visitors will now be able to see this magnificent Propylaia roof which has been admired since antiquity," she said.
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