Parthenon West Facade Restored to Complete Form After 8 Years

The west facade of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens has been restored to its complete composition for the first time in over 220 years, following an eight-year intervention by the Acropolis Restoration Service (YSMA) under Greece's Ministry of Culture. The project, which began in 2017, involved the removal of external scaffolding and the recomposition of the west pediment with two large orthostatic slabs. One slab combined ancient fragments with new marble, while the other was made entirely from marble quarried from Mount Pentelicus, the same source used for the original temple. The final phase followed a plan initially approved in 2008 and ratified in 2020, with installation completed in early March. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni called the result a historic milestone for both the monument and world cultural heritage. The Parthenon, built in the 5th century BCE as a temple to Athena, has served as a treasury, mosque, military barracks, and storage depot over its history. Past restorations by architect Nikolaos Balanos (late 19th–early 20th century) caused damage that required corrective work. Since YSMA's founding in 1975, multidisciplinary teams have been addressing these issues. The restored west facade now offers a visual experience of the temple that had been lost before the invention of photography.