Standing a full metre taller than before and without the scaffolding that enveloped it for the past decade, the slim temple of Athena Nike atop the Acropolis in central Athens was again in full view as of this month following the completion of restoration work.
The small temple was among the ancient marble structures on the Acropolis that had suffered the most extensive damage over the years, even as far back as 1687 when it was badly damaged by a mortar shell lobbed by besieging Venetians against an Ottoman garrison barricaded on the hill.
It had also been frequently restored since 1935, though not always correctly.
When the Monuments Preservation Service took charge of it, most of the building blocks were incorrectly placed, the west side leaned by 4.5 centimetres and oxidation had penetrated to the lower, archaic-era temple. The placing of a metallic grate made of stainless steel, a change not originally envisaged as part of the restoration, was one of the factors that delayed delivery of the monument.
Other causes of delay were two further studies, one concerning the positioning of the slabs making up the frieze and another on the construction of the marble lion heads on the cyma, something done for the first time on the Acropolis.
The temple of the ‘Wingless Nike’ stands in the southwestern corner of the Acropolis, where in Mycenaean times there was a turret protecting the entrance to the Acropolis. The temple was built between 426-421 B.C. based on a plan by Kallikrates and is the successor of earlier temples dedicated to “victorious Athena” or Athena Nike.
The temple was first described as that of the ‘Nike Apteros’ (wing-less victory) by Pausanias, who described the cult statue of Athena as lacking wings — so that victory could never leave the pre-eminent Greek city-state of antiquity.
The temple has been handed over before the start of a new round of restoration work in October, this time on the western side of the Parthenon and Propylaea.
(source: ana-mpa, photo: ORESTIS PANAGIOTOU)
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