The ongoing restoration of the Propylaea of the Acropolis at Athens was inaugurated in the 1980s, when the alarmingly bad state of the superstructure became evident to the Committee of the Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments. The problems were caused by the oxidation of the densely distributed iron elements included in the parts of the superstructure restored under Nicolaos Balanos between 1909 and 1917. The disassembly of the superstructure was deemed necessary.
On Monday, April 20, Dr Tasos Tanoulas (Ministry of Culture, Education & Religious Affairs) will give a lecture on “The Architecture of the Propylaea” and the new information gained during the restoration works. The lecture is organised by the British School at Athens, in the framework of the Upper House Seminar series.
Since the beginning of the restoration project of the Propylaea, a new exhaustive investigation of the architectural and archival material was carried out, as Dr Tanoulas explains in the abstract of his presentation. The structural history has been thoroughly studied, from its erection to the present; all the vestiges and marks on the original architectural material were interpreted and used for the benefit of the scientific correctness of the intervention.
This presentation will be a concise chronicle of the Propylaea restoration project, focusing especially on the information gained as far as it concerns structure, design, building procedure and history of the Propylaea and the structures closely related to the Mnesiklean building.
Where and when: British School at Athens, Upper House, Souedias 52, Athens; Monday, April 20, 2015, 7.00 p.m.
