Acropolis now: Greeks outraged at concreting of
ancient site
An online petition signed by 3,500 people calls for
the concrete pathways to the Acropolis to be removed.
Installation of new pathway and lift has been
criticised by archaeologists and called ‘a scandal’
Helena
Smith in Athens
Thu 10 Jun
2021 05.00 BST
When seen
through the eyes of Manolis Korres, the architect who has long presided over
the restoration of the Parthenon, the Acropolis needs no improvement at all.
In the face
of such architectural mastery, he thinks of himself more as a maestro of order,
making a monument that has survived explosions, fire, looting and earthquakes
more understandable to the public.
“Many
generations of scholars have tried to bring order to this chaos, myself
included,” he said, while taking in the maze of marble slabs and
scaffolding-encased ruins around him. “The issue is to safeguard what is here.
In a hospital you have to take care of patients, for me the patients are
stones.”
The wiry
professor, a world-renowned authority on the fifth century BC site and current
head of the Acropolis Monuments Conservation committee, is regarded as a
national treasure in Greece. No man, say supporters, knows more about the
Periclean treasure, or the sacred rock on which it stands.
But at 73,
70 years after he was first taken as a child on the shoulders of an uncle to
visit the temples, the architect has also come under criticism for
interventions conducted during lockdown and deemed to have gone too far.
The
installation of a new pathway paved in reinforced concrete across much of the
hill’s open space in the name of facilitating people with disabilities has been
met with dismay. So, too, has Korres’ proposed plan to overhaul the ancient
citadel’s majestic gateway, or Propylaia, by reinstating a Roman staircase that
would both broaden the entrance, correct previous erroneous interventions and
return it to some of its original form.
Critics
complain that both pander to mass tourism rather than saving the site from the
ravages of time.
Prior to
the pandemic, about 3.5 million tourists made the ascent to see the Acropolis,
the country’s most visited site.
In the six
months that the temples were closed to the public on account of Covid-19, a new
lift capable of carrying two wheelchairs at a time was also installed on the
rock’s northern flank, replacing an older elevator that had ceased to operate
years ago. That, too, has been criticised as a modernist eyesore.
The
alterations – the most significant on the site for more than a century –
replace an older pathway that followed the ancient Panathenaic way and was much
narrower in size. Opposition has been fierce. More than 3,500 signatories have
endorsed an open letter on the online activist network Avaaz calling for the
pathways to be removed and other projected changes to be cancelled. Following the
completion of the corridors on the northern and eastern area of the site, plans
are afoot to extend the walkways west and south.
“It’s as if
the Parthenon itself has been lowered to street level and surrounded by a
cement pavement,” said Despoina Koutsoumba, president of the Association of
Greek archaeologists. “There has been a great deal of pressure, especially from
the cruise industry, to increase visitor capacity so that even larger crowds
can be accommodated.”
Dr Tasos
Tanoulas, until recently director of restorations at the Propylaia, also
deplored the decision to cover so much of the rock’s face with reinforced
concrete, saying the move would lead inexorably to “degradation of the natural
landscape and a devaluation of the rock as a natural monument in its own right,
as a natural fort”. In a letter to World Heritage Watch – the Berlin-based body
established to ensure that prime sites are not sacrificed to economic interests
– Tanoulas argued the alterations appeared to “compete with and diminish” the
architectural and sculptural splendour of the monuments.
Yannis
Hamilakis, a professor of archaeology and modern Greek studies at Brown
University, went further, saying the changes amounted to “a scandal of global
proportions” given the monument’s significance as a world heritage site.
“The most
scandalous thing, perhaps, is that these works have been carried out without
prior systematic study,” he said. “They’re clearly an attempt to recreate an
imagined fifth century BC Acropolis, a neo-classical colonialist and
nationalist dream which converges with the government’s agenda for further
commercialisation of the site.”
If proof were
needed, he said, the French designer Christian Dior will be among the first to
take advantage of the new expanded pathways with a fashion shoot on the
Acropolis next week.
But the
changes have also won praise, and according to Korres, have the added advantage
of being ‘reversible’. “What we have done is patch rock destroyed by the
vicissitudes of time. We didn’t have the freedom to use flagstones or other
materials because they weren’t used in the past but, if desired, all this
surface,” he said pointing to the paving, “could be removed in a day because of
the membrane underneath.”
Greece’s
culture minister, Lina Mendoni, a respected archaeologist herself, defended the
measures, saying they had been ratified at multiple levels, including the
powerful central archaeological council Kas. “They’ve all been approved by
people whose credibility cannot be disputed,” she said during a tour of the
site. “Since 2004 [when Athens held the Olympic Games] we’ve been talking about
improving access for people with disabilities.”
Each year
about 150 people are seriously injured negotiating the outcrop’s slippery
limestone surface, she revealed. “Many break legs. Each incident is recorded in
the site’s logbooks. Whatever you do on the Acropolis ignites debate. If you don’t
do anything, you’re criticised; if you do, you’re criticised.”
Tour guides
gathered around the monument’s ticket booths on Wednesday agreed the new
pathways were overdue. “There are ambulances up here at least four times a
week,” said Athina Pitaki who has been guiding visitors around the site since
1978. “I’ve been up here long enough to see all the changes and in reality it’s
much better now. It hasn’t affected the monuments. They’re still as impressive
as ever and for the first time people can enjoy them without always fearing
they’re about to fall.”
Korres
knows he is in for a fight. Flooding at the site described as “a predictable
consequence” of the new paving following heavy rains last December has
intensified the outcry. Critics, led by Dr Tanoulas, claim it would be
impossible to detach the reinforced concrete because it would require
mechanical means and damage the rock.
But it is
controversy the amiable professor appears to relish. “A hilltop can’t flood,”
he smiles. “Any intervention raises the issue of aesthetics and is a
controversial process. It’s always about weighing what is gained and what is
lost.”
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