• Restoration work since 1975 has corrected earlier conservation errors and replaced damaged elements with titanium and new marble.
  • Scaffolding returns this month but should vanish by next summer.

Last month, authorities removed the scaffolding covering the western facade of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Since then, lucky pilgrims to this legendary 5th-century B.C.E. temple—which accepts only 20,000 visitors each day—have enjoyed vistas previously unavailable for 20 years, when the westward scaffolding went up. In fact, this brief and shining moment marks the first time in 200 years that the Parthenon is free from any and all scaffolding, noted Greece’s Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, as reported by the Associated Press. “It is like they are seeing a completely different monument,” she said.

Alas, the scaffolding is set to return this month. Fortunately, it’s slated for permanent removal next summer, when restorations at the Parthenon will draw to a tentative close. Then and only then, Mendoni said, will “the Parthenon will be completely freed of this scaffolding too, and people will be able to see it truly free.” For now, however, the site’s western facade is still offering unprecedented views, even from the pedestrian road along the foot of the Acropolis.

The ancient Greeks built and decorated this UNESCO World Heritage Site in about a decade to honor Athena, the local patron goddess, after the Greeks prevailed against Persian invasion. Since its original role as the city’s treasury, the Parthenon has served as a church, a mosque, and even an army barracks, shifting with the local leadership. The Parthenon has also withstood significant natural damage, including earthquakes, fires, and acid rain—as well as more manmade threats like bomb blasts during the 17th-century Morean War and pillaging by the likes of Scotland’s Lord Elgin, who brought many of the site’s sculptures to the U.K.

A photograph of the Parthenon at nighttime with an intricate grid of metal scaffolding covering the eight columns and pediment of its face.

The Greek Parthenon Temple covered by scaffolding, at the Acropolis archaeological site in Athens, Greece, on October 16, 2024. Photo: Dimitris Lampropoulos / NurPhoto via Getty Images.

Engineer Nikolaos Balanos oversaw a haphazard conservation effort in the 1890s. His team incorrectly rearranged the Parthenon’s very specifically-placed marble blocks, and fortified its masonry with iron components that eventually rusted, expanded, and cracked the surrounding stone. The current conservation project kicked off in 1975, rearranging those blocks back in their proper spots and replacing the corroded iron with more durable titanium rods. They’ve also spirited the Acropolis’s sculptures away into a climate-controlled museum, and created replacement architectural components wherever possible with marble from the Parthenon’s original quarry.

Vasiliki Eleftheriou, former director of the Acropolis Restoration Service (YSMA), confirmed to The National Herald that work on the Parthenon’s exterior is reaching its conclusion. All that remains is the west facade’s pediment, which is due to have its ancient pieces and modern bolsters replaced.

In the meantime, however, that facade is still totally pristine. It seems that authorities are gearing up to replace the former scaffolding with a safer, sleeker setup. Medoni promised that this new scaffolding will appear “lighter and aesthetically much closer to the logic of the monument.” While it’s supposed to be permanently gone come summer, Eleftheriou has pointed out that the YSMA could always find new missing pieces of the Parthenon, which would of course mark a joyful occasion for the scaffolding’s return.