{"id":44597,"date":"2025-11-14T16:37:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T16:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=44597"},"modified":"2025-11-14T16:37:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T16:37:38","slug":"ihbc-features-heritage-from-the-global-doorstep-see-the-parthenon-without-scaffolding-for-the-first-time-in-c-200-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=44597","title":{"rendered":"IHBC features \u2018Heritage from the Global doorstep\u2019: See the Parthenon without scaffolding for the first time in c.200 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

image for illustration: The Parthenon in Athens<\/a> by Steve Swayne, CC BY 2.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only recently has scaffolding been removed that has partially obscured the western fa\u00e7ade of the Parthenon for the past two decades, resulting in a \u2018purer visual state\u2019 reports Open Culture.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Open Culture writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The press attention drawn by this event prompted Greece\u2019s Minister of Culture Linda Mendoni to declare this the first time the Parthenon\u2019s exterior has been completely free of scaffolding in about two centuries. Having been originally built in the fifth century BC, and come through most of that span much the worse for wear, it requires intensive and near-constant maintenance. Its inundation by visitors surely doesn\u2019t help: an estimated 4.5 million people went to the Acropolis in 2024, the kind of figure that makes you believe in the diagnoses of global \u2018overtourism\u2019 thrown around these days. The Greek government\u2019s countermeasures include a daily visitor cap of 20,000, implemented in 2023, and a requirement to reserve a timed entry slot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d like to see the wholly un-scaffolded Parthenon in person, you\u2019d best reserve your own slot as soon as possible: more conservation work is scheduled to begin in November, albeit with temporary infrastructure designed to be \u2018lighter and aesthetically much closer to the logic of the monument,\u2019 as Mendoni has explained. But if you miss that window, don\u2019t worry, since that operation should only last until early next summer, and upon its completion, \u2018the Parthenon will be completely freed of this scaffolding too, and people will be able to see it truly free.\u2019 Not that they\u2019ll be able to see it for free: even now, a general-admission Acropolis reservation costs \u20ac30 (about $35 USD) during the summertime peak season. Athena was the goddess of wisdom, warfare, and handicraft, not wealth, but it clearly lies within her powers to command a decent price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

image for illustration: The Parthenon in Athens by Steve Swayne, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Only recently has scaffolding been removed that has partially obscured the western fa\u00e7ade of the Parthenon for the past two decades, resulting in a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,18,30,23,29,34,22],"class_list":["post-44597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ihbc-newsblog","tag-building","tag-conservation","tag-environment","tag-expertise","tag-heritage","tag-preservation","tag-skills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44599,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44597\/revisions\/44599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}