Historical note: The siege of the Acropolis took place between 23 and 29 September 1687. Francesco Morosini positioned his artillery on Philopappou Hill. The Ottomans had stored around 700 barrels of gunpowder inside the Parthenon. At 7 PM on 26 September, a shell struck the powder magazine, killing over 300 people.
Parthenon and Erechtheion · Modern Period · 26 September 1687, 7 PM
The Lucky Shot
Story teaser
A single shell turned two thousand years of endurance into ruin in minutes.
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The Lucky Shot
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Story
The Lucky Shot
Parthenon and Erechtheion · Modern
For two thousand years, the Parthenon had not broken.
It was built as a response to the Persians, who had destroyed the temple that stood here before. The Parthenon itself never faced them, but it faced everything that came after. The Romans. The Crusaders. The Ottomans. It became a church, then a mosque. The building changed hands and changed purpose, but its structure stood.
That evening, there were 700 barrels of gunpowder inside it.
The Ottomans had chosen the Parthenon as an ammunition store, perhaps believing no one would dare to bombard it. But they did not know Morosini. A military commander who had already taken the entire Peloponnese. A man whom Venice would make Doge after this victory. He did not care what the Parthenon was. He cared what was inside it.
The Venetian commander had positioned his artillery on Philopappou Hill. From there, his guns had been firing for three days.
At 7 PM on 26 September 1687, a single shell pierced the marble roof.
The explosion was heard as far away as Piraeus.
More than three hundred people were killed instantly. Soldiers, yes, but also the families of the Ottomans who had taken shelter inside: women, children. They had chosen the Parthenon because it seemed to them the safest place in the city.
The central chamber collapsed. The columns fell. Pheidias's frieze, 160 metres of marble, carved over fifteen years, was reduced to fragments in minutes.
Morosini called the shot "fortunato colpo." His aide, Königsmark, later wrote:
"How it grieved him to destroy the magnificent temple that had stood for three thousand years."
One man mourned it. The other rejoiced.
Before the Venetians left, Morosini tried to remove statues from the western pediment. Poseidon and the horses of Athena fell and shattered on the ground as they were being lowered.
The Parthenon was now a ruin.
Today, as you stand here
What you see is not an ancient ruin in the way you might imagine. The Parthenon was almost intact until that night. What you see is the result of a single evening.
Two thousand years of endurance. One shell. Two minutes.
Seven more stories await — from the Ancient Agora to the Pnyx.