It cannot be said that the outside is beautiful

Its silhouette has become nothing less than the symbol of Western culture. The Parthenon, jewel of the Citadel of the Acropolis, was originally a temple dedicated to Athena built in 432 BC. Since this piece of architecture out of the ordinary, regarded as an ideal of beauty, has been the subject of many conflicts and tensions. In the early 19th century lord Elgin, Ambassador to England to Constantinople while Athens was occupied by the Turks, brought back for its own account nearly half of the friezes of the temple and later sold it to the British Museum still exposes. "Scraps" of the Parthenon are also scattered in other major museums like the Louvre, the Kunsthistorich in Vienna, the archaeological museum in Palermo, the Glyptotek in Munich or the collections of the Vatican.

However, the Greece still about 45 of the frieze and many works, about 3,000, which constituted the decor of the temple of Athena or buildings surrounding. With time, the pollution of the city and degradation due to the Raiders history, measures had been taken: the treasures gathered in a small Museum near the Acropolis. But the Greek State wanted to give the Parthenon museum at the extent of the monument. Project date of thirty years. After three architectural competition, the final draft was finally announced in 2001. The winner is Bernard Tschumi, the French architect born in Switzerland, former Dean of the prestigious school of architecture at Columbia and creator of the parc de La Villette in Paris.

The Museum must open in 2004 Athens Olympic Games. But that's not counting with the archaeological richness of the basements. Foundation work are quickly interrupted and archaeologists monopolize the site. They find the remains of an ancient city. The list of the problems of any kind is long and by Bernard Tschumi not less than 104 trial was brought against the project. After all these adventures, he finally opened on June 20 some 21,000 m2 on three floors of a building of black glass, marble and concrete that will cost EUR 130 million to the Greek State and the European regional development fund.

Interior managed

The Museum is not strictly speaking on the site of the Acropolis. It is located below, 300 metres. It cannot be said that the outside is beautiful. The concrete grid belt building is even rather thankless. But the whole fits perfectly to the chaotic landscape of the modern Athens that surrounds it. The Interior, on the other hand, is a complete success. Comment by architect: "my goal was not singer antique building." I wasn't making the Phidias in the 21st century. "Bernard Tschumi designed a three-storey building, each being very differentiated and corresponding to the three requirements of the project. The basement is occupied by the remains of the Athenian city excavated. The architect took to "base" the 4,000 square metres of the remains of ancient structures to set the location of the piles which support the building.

The ground floor opens largely on the vision of the remains and objects of the archaic period found on the site. At the higher level are exposed in the decorative elements that appeared in the Acropolis, the peak time Greek. One is struck by the dramatic size of the figures that are assembled as the parts of a puzzle to which he would miss the pieces. This space is oriented towards the city. Finally the third floor of a lower dimension is exactly oriented in the same way as the ancient temple. It is dedicated to the exhibition of Frisia: the portion retained by the Greeks (pale yellow), and the casts of the originals (white) today at the British Museum. And the night, since the Parthenon, on devine Friesland in illuminated glass box.

The idea of the return to Greece of the English part of these marbles, also renamed "elgin marble" by our neighbours to revel, is now the cultural obsession with the Greek authorities. International public opinion might be, who knows, a new non-negligible ally against the British inflexibility.