The Acropolis Restoration News
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The Acropolis Restoration News 11 ñ July 2011 View of the restored temple of Athena Nike from the E. Photo T. Souvlakis, 2010 M. Ioannidou, 2010 – 2011, The progress of restoration on the Acropolis D. Michalopoulou, K. Mamalougas, The restoration programme of the temple of Athena Nike: brief evaluation K. Karanasos, Restoration of the superstructure of the south wall of the central building of the Propylaia G. Frantzi, The gradual revealing of colour on the ceiling of the Porch of the Maidens in the Erechtheion V. Manidaki, The replacement of sculptured architectural members on the monuments of the Acropolis. Casts, copies and authentic members L. Lambrinou, The restoration of the Parthenon’s pronaos: aesthetical matter or theoretical dilemma? C. Hadziaslani,E. Kaimara, A. Leonti, New activities and publications of the Information and Education Department E. Petropoulou, News from the Acropolis New activities and publications of the Information end Education Department The school year of 2010-2011 was very as a whole offer an inter-thematic way of The film is a valuable audio-visual product creative for our Department. Completed teaching and can provide a theme to be for pupils studying the restoration works, during this period were four new produc- developed in many lessons of the school since they can listen to the people who are tions, which are described in the present curriculum; moreover it can be incorpo- carrying out the work talk about what article. rated in the teaching material of different they are doing; they can also see details of grades. In particular, great possibilities ex- the work being done, which they would Acropolis and Restoration ist for developing the theme in the frame- not be able to see otherwise. Since architectural heritage is an ines- work of Environmental Education. timable cultural good that must be pre- With the opportunity of this publication, served and handed on to future genera- All the pamphlets of the Teacher’s Pack the Department is organising an open day tions, it is of major importance to ap- are triptychs to facilitate their use in the programme on the Acropolis in the au- proach it through education. With this in classroom by smaller groups of pupils. On tumn of 2011, that will familiarise school mind, in 2010 the Department of Infor- one face of the pamphlet the subject is de- children and the general public with the mation and Education of the Acrop- monuments of the Sacred Rock and olis Restoration Service has created with the restoration works. a new Teacher’s Pack entitled “Acropolis and Restoration”. www.acropolis-athena.gr Another educational activity com- The pack is prepared for educators pleted by the Department of Infor- and for pupils, particularly of the mation and Education in 2010, is the Secondary level, who declare special on-line application “Athena, Goddess interest in the works of restoration of the Acropolis” (www.acropolis- being carried out at present on the athena.gr). The application was cre- Acropolis, and are interested in the ated in collaboration with the Acrop- problems of the monuments and the olis Museum, thanks to the generous reasons that have led to their funding from the Bodosaki Founda- restoration. It contains ten educa- tion, to which special thanks are tional pamphlets that are divided due. into two groups: Athena, the goddess of wisdom, of In the first group of pamphlets, the- culture and the arts was directly con- oretical subjects are presented that nected with the city to which she are associated in a general way with had given her name. Her presence as the restoration of ancient monu- a name, as a tradition and as an artis- ments, particularly those of the Teacher’s Pack “Acropolis and Restoration” tic expression was predominant Acropolis: the types of restorations, everywhere, especially in the most the problems of the monuments and the veloped with the necessary informative important sanctuary of the city, the reasons for the intervention, the principles text, while on the other side there is plen- Acropolis, where the goddess was wor- of the works of restoration on the Acropo- tiful photographic material with views of shipped in many different forms and ca- lis, the method of the interventions on the the monument before and after restora- pacities. Acropolis monuments. tion, accompanied by explanatory cap- tions for easier comprehension of the sub- The purpose of the on-line application is Presented analytically in the second group ject. to familiarise the user with the various na- are the restoration programmes that are tures of the divinity. By means of a virtual carried out on each individual monument The Teacher’s Pack includes also the film tour of the Acropolis Museum, the user, under the titles: Parthenon, Propylaia, “The Works on the Athenian Acropolis”, following a beam of light, looks for and Erechtheion, Temple of Athena Nike, The (duration 60 minutes) comprising 5 the- observes the exhibits of the goddess Rock, the Walls and the Environment. A matic units: The Parthenon, the West side Athena that have been chosen. special pamphlet is dedicated to proposals of the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the for the educators. The contents of the Pack Propylaia and the Temple of Athena Nike. A number of these reflect the sacred cult 33 statues of the goddess that were once pediment, where only part of the statue named Meleso, as well as the famous Pen- within the temples and of which today no has survived. Yet another category of stat- sive Athena. trace remains, such as the clay statuette ues that can be seen in the application resembling the wooden statue of Athena comprises the various votives-dedications The application includes also a fragment of a Panathenaic amphora, the vase that was presented as a prize to victors in the Panathenaic games, on which there is a representation of the goddess Athena, ful- ly armed as a goddess of war. For each of these exhibits the user can read a brief de- scription, a relevant myth, information about the cult of Athena as well as the rel- evant ancient texts of Pausanias. In addi- tion it is possible to see the exhibit from close-up and some of them all around, vir- tually restored. Three months after the uploading of the on-line application www.acropolis- athena.gr, there have been 3,844 visits, a number that corresponds to 3,145 indi- On-line application “Athena, Goddess of the Acropolis” vidual visitors. Six hundred of these visi- Polias, the patron goddess of the city, that to the goddess that represent the goddess tors come from 49 foreign countries. It is was kept inside the Erechtheion, as well herself, such as the Athena that was interesting that a third (33%) of the vis- as the marble statue of Athena Parthenos, carved by the famous sculptor Endoios, its are direct visits. The other sources of a Roman copy of the chryselephantine the little bronze Athena Promachos, god- “traffic” are the reference websites (62%) masterpiece by Pheidias, that stood with- dess of battle, dedicated by a woman and search engines (5%). in the Parthenon. The photographs, the artistic design and Included likewise in the application are the editing of the application were done some of the most important architectural by Professor K. Antoniadis and the appli- sculptures of the Acropolis with themes cation design and development by Y. Kout- taken from the goddess's mythology, such soukos. as the impressive statue of Athena in the Gigantomachy where she is shown fight- A Day in the Acropolis Museum with ing with the Giant of earthquakes, Enge- the Goddess Athena lados, from the pediment of the “Archaios The next educational activity of the De- Naos” (the Old Temple), as well as the partment combines the on-line search for representations in relief of Athena from the goddess Athena with an actual search the Parthenon frieze and from the parapet for the goddess inside the Acropolis Muse- of the Athena Nike temple. In this same um. The programme has been organised category of architectural sculptures are by the Acropolis Museum and in its con- the statues of Athena from the two pedi- text a special Family Pack has been creat- ments of the Parthenon. The birth of the ed.The Pack contains a series of games goddess was shown in the east pediment, that help the child recognize the goddess from which her statue has disappeared Athena from her attributes and search for but the user can recreate her in his imagi- her in the Museum. The purpose of the nation with the help of a virtual recon- Pack is to attract families and to facilitate struction of the statue. So too, the strug- Digital reconstruction of the chryselephantine their visit inside the Museum. As an intro- gle of Athena with Poseidon in the west statue of Athena Parthenos duction to the programme “A Day in the Acropolis Museum with the Goddess home, the child can repeat and also con- other cases, the figures are black but the Athena”, a bilingual 3-minute film was tinue his/her game with the goddess face of the goddess is painted white, as made by K. Arvanitakis, explaining the Athena on the internet. was the practice so as to distinguish the contents of the Family Pack as well as the female from the male figure. The children on-line application (www.acropolis- Another activity the parents can enjoy search for these representations of Athena athena.gr), which everybody can visit af- with their children in the Museum, in the in the gallery of archaic exhibits, in the terwards at home.