Acropolis Athens History: From Mycenaean Citadel to Restoration
People lived on this rock before anyone built a temple on it, and armies used it long after the last sacrifice. Every stage left something you can still point at. Weighing up acropolis of athens tours? The story below is what a good guide unpacks at each stop.
Before the temples: Neolithic to Mycenaean, 4000–1200 BC
The oldest evidence is pottery. Sherds of the Neolithic period, 4000/3500 to 3000 BC, and of the Early and Middle Bronze Age near the Erechtheion show that the hill was lived on from a very early date. The reason is plain when you stand at the foot of it: the Acropolis is a natural fortress, a rocky outcrop 160 m high, and it can be climbed only from the west.
In the 13th century BC a fortification wall was built around the top, and the citadel became the centre of a Mycenaean kingdom. Parts of that wall survive among the later monuments. Look to the south-east of the Propylaea as you come through the gateway, where traces of it are still visible.
The Archaic sanctuary, 8th to 6th century BC
The rock became a sacred precinct in the 8th century BC, when the cult of Athena Polias, protector of the city, was established. Her temple stood on the north-east side of the hill.
Under Peisistratos, in the middle of the 6th century BC, the sanctuary grew. The Panathenaia, the city's greatest religious festival, was founded, and the first monumental buildings went up: the so-called Old Temple and the Hekatompedon, the predecessor of the Parthenon, both dedicated to Athena. The shrine of Artemis Brauronia and the first monumental gateway date from the same years. Athenians filled the precinct with offerings: marble korai, horsemen, bronze and terracotta statuettes. Many carry inscriptions, and you can see them today in the Archaic Gallery of the Acropolis Museum.
The Persian sack of 480 BC and the new walls
After the Athenians beat the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, they began a very large temple, now called the Pre-Parthenon. It was still unfinished when the Persians invaded Attica in 480 BC, pillaged the Acropolis and set fire to its monuments.
Pericles' building programme, second half of the 5th century BC
By the middle of the 5th century BC Athens led the Athenian League, whose treasury was kept on the Acropolis. Pericles started a building programme that ran for the rest of the century. Athenians and foreigners alike worked on it, for a wage of one drachma a day. The four buildings you walk among today all belong to it.
The Parthenon
The first to be finished. Work began in 447 BC and was completed fifteen years later, to plans by the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates, with the sculptor Pheidias, a friend of Pericles, overseeing the project. The whole temple, roof tiles included, is Pentelic marble. Part of the allies' tribute paid for it.
The Propylaea
The monumental gateway you climb through, built by the architect Mnesikles. In later centuries it served as a bishop's residence, a Frankish palace and an Ottoman headquarters.
The Erechtheion
Built in the last twenty years of the 5th century BC, also to a design by Mnesikles. It replaced the old temple of Athena Polias and housed several cults under one roof, which is why its shape is so irregular. Its south porch rests on six maidens, the Caryatids.
The Temple of Athena Nike
The small Ionic temple on the bastion south of the gateway, built around 420 BC by Kallikrates.
Want someone to show you which stones are Periclean?
A licensed guide walks you from the Mycenaean wall to the Erechtheion porch. Each tour says whether the €30 ticket is in the fare.
Churches, a cathedral and a fortress, 6th century to 1456
Nothing major was built on the rock between the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC and the Roman period. In 27 BC a small round temple to Rome and Augustus went up east of the Parthenon, and you can still see its remains. After the Herulian raid of the 3rd century AD, a new wall was built with two gates on the west side. One, the Beulé Gate, named for the 19th-century French archaeologist who investigated it, is the gate you walk past on the way up today.
With Christianity, and above all in the 6th century AD, the temples became churches. The Parthenon was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, later called Panagia Athiniotissa, and served as the cathedral of Athens in the 11th century. The Erechtheion became a church, the Temple of Athena Nike a chapel and the Propylaea a bishop's residence. The rock turned into the fortress of the medieval city, and under Frankish rule, 1204 to 1456, the Propylaea were the ruler's residence.
The Ottoman garrison and the 1687 explosion
From 1456 to 1833 the Acropolis was an Ottoman garrison, with its headquarters in the Propylaea. Until the middle of the 17th century, according to the Acropolis Museum, the main monuments were still broadly intact. Then came three blows.
- 1645: lightning ignited gunpowder stored in the Propylaea, and the explosion badly damaged the gateway.
- 1686: facing a Venetian army, the garrison took down the Temple of Athena Nike and used its blocks to strengthen the walls.
- 26 September 1687: the Venetians under Morosini besieged the rock and bombarded the Parthenon, which was then a gunpowder store. The explosion destroyed it, throwing its architectural members around the hill.
Many of the Parthenon's architectural members fell in heaps around the hill. Gathering them up is part of what the restoration service still does.
Elgin, 1801–1802, and the Parthenon Marbles
In 1801 and 1802 Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and Britain's ambassador to Constantinople, had sculpture removed from the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion. The Ministry of Culture calls it looting that caused further serious damage. The Acropolis Museum notes that the Sultan's permit allowed him to investigate the Acropolis, not to strip its monuments.
His team shipped to Britain a large share of the sculpture still on the Parthenon, the Parthenon Marbles, together with four frieze blocks from the Temple of Athena Nike and one of the six Caryatids, detached in 1804. They are in the British Museum in London. In the Acropolis Museum's Parthenon Gallery the missing pieces are shown as plaster casts beside the originals, and on the Caryatid balcony the place of the sixth maiden is left empty.
Handed to the Greeks in 1822, and the restoration since
During the Greek War of Independence the Acropolis was handed over to the Greeks in 1822, and Odysseas Androutsos became its first Greek garrison commander. The Ottoman garrison left for good in 1833, and in 1834 the new Greek state proclaimed the rock an archaeological site.
Limited investigation followed in 1835 and 1837, and P. Kavvadias excavated the site systematically from 1885 to 1890. N. Balanos led the first large restoration in the early 20th century. In 1975 a committee for the conservation of the Acropolis monuments was set up. In 1979 it removed the Caryatids from the Erechtheion to protect them from air pollution, and the maidens on the porch today are copies. The restoration service's work is still in progress, so expect scaffolding or a crane on at least one monument when you visit.
The Acropolis through the ages, in one table
If you only remember a few dates on the climb, make it these. Each row is something a guide can show you on the rock or in the museum.
| Period | Dates | What changed on the rock |
|---|---|---|
| Neolithic | 4000/3500–3000 BC | Pottery shows people living on the hill |
| Mycenaean | 13th century BC | A fortification wall; the citadel is the seat of a kingdom |
| Geometric | 8th century BC | The cult of Athena Polias makes it a sacred precinct |
| Archaic | mid-6th century BC | Peisistratos: the Panathenaia, the Old Temple, the Hekatompedon |
| Persian Wars | 490–480 BC | The Pre-Parthenon is begun, then burned in the sack of 480 BC |
| Classical | second half of the 5th century BC | Pericles' programme: Parthenon, Propylaea, Erechtheion, Athena Nike |
| Roman | 27 BC | A small round temple to Rome and Augustus east of the Parthenon |
| Late Roman | after the 3rd century AD | A new wall with two west gates, one of them the Beulé Gate |
| Christian | 6th century AD onward | Temples become churches; the Parthenon is the city's cathedral in the 11th century |
| Frankish | 1204–1456 | The Propylaea become the ruler's residence |
| Ottoman | 1456–1833 | The Propylaea are the garrison headquarters |
| Venetian siege | 26 September 1687 | The Parthenon, a gunpowder store, is blown apart |
| Elgin | 1801–1802 | Sculpture is removed from the Parthenon, Athena Nike and the Erechtheion |
| Greek War of Independence | 1822 | The Acropolis is handed to the Greeks |
| Greek state | 1834 | Proclaimed an archaeological site |
| Restoration | 1975 to today | A standing committee plans the conservation work still in progress |
Sources: Hellenic Ministry of Culture, odysseus.culture.gr, Acropolis of Athens history and description (Ioanna Venieri, archaeologist); Acropolis Museum, museum history, the Parthenon Gallery, the Erechtheion and the Karyatid object record.
Next: the monuments by builder and date are on Acropolis facts, the sculpture itself on the Acropolis Museum, and every fare is compared on Acropolis Athens Tours.