Settled since prehistory, the Acropolis was razed by Persians in 480 BCE and reborn under Pericles with the Parthenon, Propylaia, Erechtheion, and Athena Nike. Reused for churches and a mosque, shattered in 1687, it has undergone scientific restorations since the 19th century and UNESCO inscription (1987).
Mycenaean walls and a palace established the hill’s sacred and strategic identity. Archaic sanctuaries expressed a growing polis until Persian destruction swept them away.
Pericles’ 5th‑century BCE program, with Phidias, Iktinos, Kallikrates, and Mnesicles, produced the Parthenon, Propylaia, Temple of Athena Nike, and Erechtheion. The ensemble fused devotion to Athena with civic ideology and artistic innovation.
Temples became churches, then under the Ottomans a mosque; in 1687 a Venetian shell ignited powder in the Parthenon, blasting its core.
From 1830s clearances to late‑20th‑century anastylosis, conservation has shifted toward reversible, well‑documented repair. UNESCO inscribed the site in 1987.
