Erected 447–432 BCE under Pericles by Iktinos and Kallikrates with Phidias’s sculpture, the Doric Parthenon used subtle optical refinements and a rich sculptural program. Church, then mosque, it was shattered in 1687. Since 1975, meticulous anastylosis has stabilized the ruin within the UNESCO‑listed Acropolis.
Rising after the Persian sack, the temple drew on Delian League resources to proclaim Athenian power. Pentelic marble formed a peripteral Doric temple with an Ionic frieze; Phidias directed metopes (mythic combats), a continuous Panathenaic frieze, and pediments of Athena’s birth and contest with Poseidon. A chryselephantine Athena Parthenos stood in the cella.
Entasis in columns, inward inclinations, and a subtly arched stylobate countered visual distortions, crafting the temple’s famed harmony.
Converted to a church and then a mosque, the Parthenon suffered catastrophic explosion in 1687 when a Venetian shell ignited Ottoman powder. In the early 1800s, the Elgin Marbles—about half the surviving sculpture—were removed to Britain, a dispute still alive.
Since 1975, state‑of‑the‑art conservation (lead by Manolis Korres and international teams) has corrected earlier repairs, reassembled scattered members, and preserved sculptural fragments. The Acropolis was inscribed by UNESCO in 1987.
