E. Site Selection and Building Utilization

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E. Site Selection and Building Utilization

• Group members
• Ying Guo
• Whitney Ashley
• Adam Nichols
• Zachary Line
• John Rivera
• D.J. Bryant

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Outline

• Site selection/orientation
• Classical Parthenon Utilization
• Building Utilization Christian Church
• Building Utilization Cathedral-Explosion
• Building Utilization Explosion-1800
• Modern Era Parthenon 1800-Present

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Site Selection and Orientation of the Parthenon

• Presenters Zachary Line and D.J. Bryant

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(No Transcript)
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• Present Day

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Determining Factors

• 1. Historical significance of the Acropolis
• This place is really old!
• 2. Greek standards concerning temple orientation
• I really think it would improve the feng shui of
  the area if we locate the Parthenon just south of
  the Erechtheionumkay
• 3. Greek ideals on how to perceive architecture.
• Oblique perspectives rock!

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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis

• Acropolislong and rich history
• Ideal location
• Shallow caves, abundant water supplies, and
  natural protection from invaders
• First inhabitants Neolithic man
• Marble and terracotta figurines
• Mycenaean Period
• Fortified citadel
• Palatial megaron (?)

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Plan of Acropolis Late Bronze Age
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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis

• Mycenaean remains limestone column base, pottery
  fragments, vases, cyclopean walls.
• Late Geometric Period
• Concept of polisthe city-state
• Side effect self-definition
• Medium Architecture
• 700-650 BCE- first temple to Athena Polias
• Limestone column bases
• South of Erechtheion under Dörpfeld foundations
• Not much known

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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis

• 560 BCEthe Bluebeard temple
• 1st Monumental Temple
• Doric order
• Sculptures pedimentsname
• 40m x 20m
• Location ?
• Trash pile

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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis

• Bluebeard Temple Location (?)

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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis

• 506 BCE (?)Archaios Neos
• Major military victory
• Doric temple, limestone w/ marble accents
• 43m x 21m
• gt Grandiose
• Dörpfeld foundation

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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis

• Dörpfeld Foundation

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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis

• 489-490 BCEOlder Parthenon
• Largest temple attempted on
• mainland Greece
• Located south of Erechtheion _at_ precipice.
• 70m x 26m
• Pentelic Marble
• gt Grandiose
• Mini Periklean Parthenon
• Never completed

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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis
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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis

• 480 BCEPersians sack Acropolis
• Oath of Plataia
• Fight to death, loyal, leave ruins of temples
• Testament to Persians impiety/memorial
• Dörpfeld foundationnever redeveloped
• Older Parthenonincorporated into Periklean
  Parthenon
• Save money
• Symbolic gesture

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1. Historical Significance of the Acropolis

• Recap
• Polisself-definition
• Medium architecture
• Athenian enamored with Acropolis
• Parthenon one in a line of many
• Crowning glory

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2. Greek Temple Orientation

• City Atop a hill
• Temple to Athena
• Standards for location
• Hierarchy clearly established

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3. Greek Perception of Architecture

• No true eastern orientation
• Northeastern orientation
• Architectural nuances
• Celestial alignment (?)
• Sergei Eisenstein
• Montage and architecture
• Oblique perspective

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Classical Parthenon Utilization

• Temple or Treasury?
• No altar
• Lockable east and west entrance
• Orientation
• Not mentioned in classical writings

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Presenter Whitney Ashley
Building Utilization Christian Church
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• Plague of 746 and steady drift of skilled
  craftsmen to Constantinople which allowed more or
  less inhabited areas which is can be targeted
  towards colonization. It never went into total
  decline because Athenians did have a few rules
  about financial liabilities, emperors, and armed
  forces. But one high officials got a little too
  carried away with his actions and was stoned too
  death at the altar of Athens cathedral church.
• The building was the first to be dedicated to the
  Holy Wisdom or the Virgin Mary of Athens. Athena
  the war god had been replaced by the Virgin
  Mother of God

Replaced by
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• Structural Changes
• Christian church had to be facing East which
  meant of inserting a monumental entrance at the
  west side of the building.
• The western cella became the narthex, and the
  eastern chamber became the pronaos where the
  eastern side of the pronaos had to be expanded
  into an apse to contain the altar
• The east pediment, the one portraying the birth
  of Athena was removed and destroyed.
• Lateral windows were pierced through the outer
  walls of the cella and the Doric columns of the
  peristyle were linked by a low wall.
• Coffered roof was replaced by vaulting, and an
  iconostasis (a partition or screen on which icons
  are placed, separating the sanctuary from the
  main part of the church) was raised before the
  altar.
• Apse was decorated with a mosaic honoring
• the Virgin Mary, and interior was filled with
  Byzantine
• frescoes.

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1204 the 4th Crusade burst upon to originally to
recover Jerusalem from the Turk but instead
captures Constantinople instead and parcel out
its imperial possessions as baronial
fiefs. The next two and half century Athens was
held in turn by Franks, Catalans, and Florentines
and the classical past was almost totally
forgotten.It was converted to Latin rite and
rename Notre Dame dAthenes so this allowed much
of the past to be forgotten.Then the Italian
traveler Niccolo de Martoni main interest was
upon Christian relics. With all this said the
main function of the Acropolis during this time
was as a defense structure.
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• After two centuries of exile, Orthodoxy was
  reestablished in the territory ruled by the
  dutchy although the Parthenon remained a
  Catholic cathedral.
• By this time ancient Athens had been destroyed
  but by this time the process of rediscovery had
  at least begun where credit to this is due to the
  enlightened Florentine regime.
• In the 15th century, the Turkish penetrated the
  Balkans and occupying the Thessaly in 1393. Then
  Mohammed II deposed them and made a triumphal
  entry into the city. He was far from typical
  Turkish ruler who could not only speak Greek but
  was also known a lot about Athenss glorious
  past. He also understood the counterweight to
  Western influence was the encouragement of Greek
  Orthodoxy. This led to almost four hundred years
  of Turkish occupation.
• But Ottoman toleration had limits and few Turkish
  rulers were as enlightened as Mohammed.
• Around 1456, abortive attempt to restore the
  duchy led the Parthenons last religious
  transformation which is into a mosque.
•  

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Building Utilization Cathedral to Explosion
Presenter Ying Guo
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1456 During Ottoman rule
Turkey turned the Parthenon into a mosque. Also a
minaret was added to the Parthenon, and its base
and stairway are still functional, leading up as
high as the architrave and hence invisible from
the outside. Otherwise, the Ottomans did not
further modify the building.
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• As well as providing a visual cue to a Muslim
  community, the call to prayer is traditionally
  given from the top of the minaret.
• In some of the oldest mosques, minarets
  originally served as watchtowers illuminated by
  torches

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• Kept from Cathedral
• Phiale
• Ciborium
• Synthronon
• Episcopal Throne
• Box shaped repositories for Sacred Vessels
• Still has Virgin Mary Mosaic still visible

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• Removed from church to Mosque
• Bell tower
• Presbytery screen
• High altar
• Altars in the side apses

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1687

• Parthenon suffered its greatest blow when the
  Venetians under Francesco Morosini attacked
  Athens, and the Ottomans fortified the Acropolis
  and used the building as a gunpowder magazine
• On September 26th a Venetian mortar, fired from
  the Hill of Philopappus, blew the magazine up and
  Parthenon was partly destroyed

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Southern side of Parthenon damaged in1687 became
roofless ruin
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• After this the building fell into disuse.

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Parthenon Morphosis
Cathedral
Church
Mosque
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Building Utilization Explosion-1800 CE
Presenter John Rivera
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Damage Theories

• Not all damage occurs during the explosion in
  1687
• Secondary damage also occurred
• Nature
• Looting
• Occurred with various parts of the Parthenon
• Columns
• Minaret

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Post 1687

• The Venetians left the Acropolis because it had
  no strategic value
• Turks moved back in
• First signs of tourism
• Jean Giraud Scholar who gave tours
• Looting and damage from the explosion cleared the
  area for the new Mosque

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1700-1750

• Function of the building shifts
• Research area
• 1707- Atene Attica published by F. Fanelli
• Word of Parthenon and its glorious elements
  reaches Europe

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1750-1800

• Function remains the same (research area) but
  additional function
• Functioned as inspiration for Europeans
• Many different European Scholars and painters
  record statues and dimensions of Parthenon
• Important
• Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la grece
• Drawings of Dalton, Stuart and Revett, J.D. Le
  Roy, and Gell No Mosque

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Presenter Adam Nichols
Modern Era Parthenon 1800-Present

• Stolen treasures and
• Inter-Country Debate

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A Train Ride To London
-Between 1801 and 1807 Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of
Elgin, with the alleged consent of the then
Ottoman rulers, transported many of the remaining
statues to London -Two centuries later the
validity of the consent given by the Ottoman
rulers is still in question.
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Elginism

• This term was coined after Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl
  of Elgin.
• The term is defined by Elginism.com to mean An
  act of Cultural Vandalism.
• This seems only fitting since it was Bruce who
  procured the Elgin Marbles between 1801 and
  1805 from the Parthenon and brought them back to
  London where they now reside in the Duveen
  Gallery in the British Museum

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A Debate that Will Not be Forgotten

• The debate over the Elgin Marbles still rages on
  today.
• In 1999, there were talks between Greece and
  Great Britain on the subject
• Bill Clinton offered to mediate, though not used.
  

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Reasons For the Marbles to stay with Britain
-Lord Elgin had impeccable legal title to the
marbles because the Ottomans, who ruled Greece at
the time, gave him permission to take them
-Britain deserves the marbles because Elgin's
taking of them preserved them from looters,
collectors and air pollution the marbles are now
part of its patrimony -They are more accessible
in London than they would be if they were in
Athens -Greece is not prepared to take
adequate care of the marbles -Returning them
would set a bad precedent, resulting in the
emptying of exhibition halls of the world's
great museums.
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Reasons For the Marbles to be returned to Greece

• The Ottomans lacked moral authority to alienate
  public monuments.
• The removal of the marbles caused irreparable
  damage to the structure of the Parthenon.
• The return of the marbles to Athens will
  facilitate scholarly study.
• The great museums of the industrialized West
  cannot turn a deaf ear to all claims for the
  important remains of a heritage merely because
  such claims threaten established collections.

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