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The Acropolis Gets A Makeover

Helen SeeneyMarch 21, 2007

Greece is dotted with thousands of ancient ruins. But preserving those monuments is a never-ending and expensive process. Without financial aid from the European Union, many of these antiquities would crumble away.

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The Acropolis has suffered greatly in its 2,500-year-old history

For more than 30 years, the Acropolis has resembled a large building site, its monuments draped in scaffolding. A small army of archaeologists, architects, engineers and marble cutters has painstakingly dismantled, restored and reconstructed its treasures.

But it's not just age that has caught up with these 2,500-year-old buildings. Wars, climatic conditions, looting and fires have also damaged the structures -- not to mention previous restoration work, which wasn't up to scratch.

The Acropolis Restoration Service (ARS) was set up in 1975 to oversee a systematic conservation program of its monuments. Funding from Brussels has transformed its work, said ARS director Maria Ioannidou.

"We had the opportunity to expand the work and I believe have now the largest and the best restoration program in the world," Ioannidou said. "We have the opportunity to restore larger parts of the monuments using authentic material, to use new marble in some cases and to protect fragments that were on the ground, giving them their authentic position."

According to Ioannidou, it's time-consuming work.

"We're supporting the traditional work of the ancient Greeks and using new technology to accelerate this work," Ioannidou said.

Europe is helping to protect European monuments

Griechenland stimmt über EU-Verfassung ab
Restorers say the site is a European monumentImage: AP

Since 2000, around 30 million euros ($39.5 million) have been spent on the Acropolis. More than 80 percent of that sum has come from the European Union.

It's up to ARS to decide how the money is spent and what the archaeological priorities are. But shouldn't the Greek government be footing a bigger part of the restoration bill? Ioannidou said no.

"Our monuments are monuments of the world, and in a way, of Europe," Ioannidou said. "So the Europeans are giving money to protect monuments of Europe."

New museum poses a logistical challenge

The EU is not only paying for the preservation of the Acropolis' past. A new museum is also taking shape, which will open later this year. It will replace the existing museum on top of the Acropolis and provide a new home for its sculptures and fragments. The museum is costing 130 million euros and Brussels is paying nearly a third of that.

This price tag is fully justified given the unique nature of the treasures it will house, said Dimitrios Pandermalis, president of the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum. What concerns him more, though, is the transportation of these priceless antiquities from high up on the Acropolis to their new home.

Athen putzt historische Stätten zur Olympiade heraus
The restoration work is anything but easyImage: AP

"It is not easy," he said. "There are a thousand factors we have to respect."

According to Pandermalis, there are more than 500 pieces involved.

"But the problem is with the big ones, for example the caryatids from the Erechtheion or the figures from the Pediment of the Parthenon," he said. "These pieces are very heavy, about two or three tons and we have to treat the surface very carefully. Every movement should be studied in advance."

Teaching children to appreciate art

A building next to the construction site houses the Center for Acropolis Studies, which teaches school kids about their ancient heritage. Specially designed kits allow pupils to design their own temples, make their own caste of an ancient frieze and become familiar with ancient Greek dress, music and culture.

Again, EU money helped to partly fund this program. The center's Cornelia Hadziaslani said it's an important part of the conservation process.

"The best preventive education is restoration," Hadziaslani said. "When you start educating younger children about monuments and art, they learn to appreciate art. So in the future, they might be more reluctant to destroy it."

Democracy was born in the shadows of the Acropolis. Its historical significance is a justification for the money spent on its preservation.

But Brussels is committed to conservation in Greece on a wider scale. Between 2000 and 2006, more than 116 million euros of EU funds was spent on restoration projects throughout the country. Brussels has also allocated more than 24 billion euros in structural funds to Greece over the next six years. The country's archaeologists are already drawing up a wish list.