All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Text edited by Rosamie Moore. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in January 2017.
Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller
- Atene (Athens)(detail of a 1651 engraving by Marco Boschini)
 (1900 Times Atlas of the World) | Key dates: 1204 At the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Athens becomes part of the Duchy of Athens under a Burgundian family. In the next 250 years the French are replaced by Catalan, Sicilian, Navarrese and Florentine rulers 1456 The Turks seize Athens 1467 The Venetians conquer Athens for a very short period 1687 The Venetian commander Francesco Morosini seizes Athens 1699 The peace of Carlowitz assigns Athens to the Turks |
Foreword: The Dukes of Athens
I do not know if today's students do it, but I used, as soon as I had the books for the new school year, rush through them to see the images they had. I still remember being quite puzzled by a black and white image which I found in my history book covering the period from the fall of the Roman Empire to 1492. Here is a colored image of that plate.
The Duke of Athens is forced out of Florence (1861 painting by Stefano Ussi)
I could not understand what a Duke of Athens had to do with the Republic of Florence.
Dante made reference to a Duke of Athens (Inferno XII):
| Forse tu credi che qui sia'l duca d'Atene che su nel mondo la morte ti porse? | "You think this is the Duke of Athens here The man who rid the world of you. Translation by Seth D. Zimmermann |
and Shakespeare set the first act of A Midsummer-Night's Dream in the palace of the Duke of Athens. But they both made
reference to Theseus, the slayer of the Minotaur and the mythological founder of Athens.
The Duke of Athens shown in this XIXth century painting is Gautier de Brienne, a vassal of Robert I, the Angevin King of Naples. In 1342 the richest Florentine families offered him the lordship of Florence, but his rule was so despotic that in 1343 he was ousted from power. He was a descendant of Jean de Brienne, Latin Emperor of Constantinople (1231-37).
The 1687 Siege of Athens
The Acropolis seen from the Monument to Philopappus in an early XIXth century print
The Venetians approached Athens from the south and positioned most of their artillery on the hill of the Muses also called hill of Philopappus after a monument to the consul Caius Julius Philopappus. From the hill the Venetians could see the Acropolis, which had the appearance of a fortress with the notable exception of the Temple to Athene, the Parthenon. The early XIXth century print shown above is very likely a faithful representation of the scene in 1687. In the late XVIIth century most of the small population of Athens (3,000 inhabitants) lived at the foot of the Acropolis northern side.
The Acropolis seen from the Monument to Philopappus
At first sight today's view does not seem very different, but then one notices the changes in the Acropolis.
An early XIXth century view of the Acropolis
The Acropolis was from the very beginning a fortress and the view above shows that in the XIXth century it had merlons and artillery sites. A tower strengthened its defence. The Acropolis could only be accessed from the west through the Propylaea, the imposing entrance built in the Vth century BC. Its two wings were turned into fortified palaces which were used by the Dukes of Athens and by the Turkish governors.
The Acropolis today
In the XIXth century the Acropolis was the object of a vast campaign of archaeological excavations. Their aim was to bring back the Acropolis to the Vth century BC. All additions of the Byzantine, Frankish and Turkish periods were regarded as not being of any interest and were destroyed. Maybe today this aim would be achieved in a more sophisticated way (the image used as a background for this page is a Turkish relief I noticed in the rubble of the Acropolis).
1687 Map of Athens
In the short period of Venetian occupation after 1687 a topographer drew a map of Athens where the Acropolis is called Castello d'Acropoli and which shows that the theatre of Herodes Atticus was included in the fortification of the Acropolis. We can also see that there were very few buildings on the Acropolis. The Venetian conquest of Athens would be a very minor event in world history if it had not caused great damage to the Parthenon. Francesco Morosini, the Venetian Commander was given the title of Peloponnesiacus by the Senate for his swift victories in the Morea War (1684-87), a type of recognition the Romans had given to very few commanders (Britannicus, Germanicus, etc..). Certainly Morosini passed away in 1694 in the belief he would be remembered as a great commander. As a matter of fact today's encyclopaedias devote a line to his military records and a paragraph to the fact that the Venetian artillery hit the Parthenon causing the collapse of its central part (maybe a today's hero, tomorrow will be remembered for the damage he indirectly caused to an important museum).
Eastern (rear) façade of the Parthenon
The Venetians had little interest in targeting the Parthenon, because they were aiming at damaging the fortifications at the entrance of the Acropolis. At that time cannon threw metal or stone balls, which were not able to cause any major damage to the solid columns of the Parthenon. The columns of the rear façade show the impact of these balls (their left side - towards the hill of Philopappus - is more damaged than the right side).
We'll never do it again!
When (in 2003) I was taking some of the pictures you see in this page I noticed three tourists who were speaking Turkish and after a brief explanation we arranged to take this picture, where on behalf of our Italian and Turkish ancestors, we formally acknowledge our wrongdoings and apologize for them.
Sitting at a cafè
Sitting at a cafè at Piraeus and the lion which Morosini brought to Venice
Many tourists sit everyday at a Piraeus cafè near the departure of the ferries for the Cycladic Islands. Its menu brings back other memories of Francesco Morosini. At the time Piraeus was called Porto Leone after the statue of a lion at the entrance to the harbour. Morosini tried to take some of the statues which decorated the Parthenon, but a first attempt to bring down a statue ended with a technical disaster, so he gave up and contented himself with the statue of the lion, which was put at the entrance of Arsenale in Venice.
Ottoman Athens
The Bazaar Mosque (Palio Dzistaraki Mosque)
In the second half of the XVIIIth century Athens had a period of development and was embellished by the Turks. Certainly when in 1833 Athens became the capital of the Kingdom of Greece, it had a pretty oriental appearance with a bazaar, hammams, Koranic schools and mosques. After a long period of neglect, the few remaining buildings of that period are gaining increasing attention.
(left) Fetiye Mosque; (right) portal of a medrese (Koranic school)
Modern Athens
The Greek Kingdom was initially limited to Peloponnese, Acarnania, Boeotia, Attica and the Cycladic islands: its "obvious" capital was Nafplion (Napoli di Romania) which had had this role during the Venetian Kingdom of Morea (1699-1714). The majority of the Greeks still lived in the Ottoman Empire and there were far more Greeks in Istanbul, Izmir or Alexandria than in any other town of the infant kingdom. The choice of Athens as capital aimed at emphasizing the links between modern and ancient Greece: a view supported by the Great Powers protecting the new kingdom, less by the Greeks themselves who believed themselves to be the heirs of Justinian and the Byzantine Empire, rather than of Pericles and the Greek Democracy.
The National Library and the Academy
This explains why the expansion of Athens was so much based on Neoclassic buildings. The first king came from Bavaria and many buildings were designed by German architects. It was (like most of XIXth century architecture) a sort of Neoclassicism à la carte in the sense that the architects assembled in various ways elements of different styles. The image above shows buildings where Neoclassic elements prevailed, but in Athens there are also a few buildings with a distinct Renaissance appearance (image below).
The Palace of the Duchess of Piacenza and Ilion Megaron, the house of Schliemann
Excerpts from Memorie Istoriografiche del Regno della Morea Riacquistato dall'armi della Sereniss. Repubblica di Venezia printed in Venice in 1692 and related to this page:
Porto Lione
Porto Lione cosi detto da un leone di Marmo di piedi dieci d'altezza, posto sù le rive
del di lui fondo, chiamato dalli Greci moderni Porto Draco: da Cicerone, e Strabone Piraus Portus,
detto anche Athenarus Portus è situato alle sponde Settentrionali del Golfo d'Engia.
Atene
Atene, chè Città antichissima della Grecia con titolo d'Archiepiscopale, e metropoli dell'Attica,
giace non lungi dalle spiaggie del Golfo d'Engia, parte del Mar Ionio, edificata dal Rè Cecrope,
che Cecropia la disse, e accresciuta in perfezione dal Rè Teseo, che l'aggrandì, obligando tutti
gl'Abitanti della Campagna à popolarla; Cecropia precisamente chiamasi la sua Cittadella,
alla quale dopo fu dato anch'il nome d'Acropolis: Questa è eretta sopra vivo sasso, ovunque
inacessibile, detratrone dalla parte d'Occidente, per dove envi l'ingresso: Da levante, e
mezzo giorno le muraglie formano la facciata d'un quadro; l'altre due accomodandosi alla
base formatagli dal medemo sasso, non riescono del tutto regolari, il circuito consiste in mille,
e duecento passi, al basso della Collina si scuoprono i vestigij d'alta muraglia, che girando
un tempo le radici della medema, tanto più rendeano difficultoso l'accesso. Li Soldati della
Guarniggione sono semplici paghe morte, che colle loro famiglie vivono anco in grembo
alla pace, gelosi di guerra, causa degl'insulti, a quali sogliono soggiacere, frequentemente inferitigli
da Corsari. E fraposta detta Cittadella quasi in egual distanza a due eminenze, una a Sud Ovest
detta Museum, chè della medema altezza della Cittadella in distanza d'un tiro di falconetto;
l'altra è il monte Achesmus impratticabile per il trasporto del cannone a fine di battere la Città, e
Cittadella; oltre che sopra di questa non evvi altra pianura; ch'una punta, sù la qual'è fabricata
la capella d'Agios Giorgios, ov'altre volte era statua di Giove, al Settentrione della Cittadella è posta
la Città, da quale in si fatta maniera vien coperta dalla parte del Mare, ch'a Naviganti sembra non esservi
altre Case, che quelle della Cittadella; perrciò molti, quali non hanno havuto curiosità di sbarcare
in terra, si sono persuasi esser tutta la grandezza d'Atene ristretta nel Castello; la situatione
della Città è molto vantaggiosa alla salute degl'Abitanti, perch'essendo il Clima caldo, segue
di grand'utile l'esser egli esposta alla Tramontana. |
Move to the Introductory page on the Venetian Fortresses in Greece
List of the fortresses
You may refresh your knowledge of the history of Venice in the Levant by reading an abstract from
the History of Venice by Thomas Salmon, published in 1754. The Italian text is accompanied by an English summary.
Other pages/sections which might be of interest to you:
