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John Milides and the preservation of the Acropolis monuments

Μελέτες-Articles

• Μπούρας, Χαράλαμπος Θ.

The importance of the contribution made by John Miliades to the planning of the Museum of the Acropolis is well known. Less well known, however, are his efforts to preserve and restore the Acropolis architectural monuments themselves. As is obvious from an inspection of the Archives of the Directorate of the Restoration of the Archaeological Service, Miliades (Director of the Acropolis from 1941 to 1960) never ceased to emphasize the dangers which threatened the Acropolis and the physical damage which the buildings had suffered. He constantly urged that measures be taken to deal with these threats, and was the first to recognize (in his Report of July, 1942) the serious damage resulting from the oxidation of the iron elements which Balanos had used in his restorations, as well as the surface deterioration of the marble due to frost and other biological causes.Thus we have preserved, in the Archives of the Service, a wealth of reports and urgent pleas for the organization of efforts aimed solely at the physical preservation of the Acropolis monuments. Unfortunately, however, in the central administrative offices of the Ministry responsible, such pleas always fell on deaf ears. Today, it is interesting to read of this theoretical approach favored in 1953 (in the Proceedings of the Archaeological Council), where priority was given to the monuments as works of art rather than to their significance as historical evidence.Miliades retired from the Archaeological Service and the Directorship of the Acropolis in 1960. The rapidly deteriorating state of the monuments of Athens, given the stamp of official scientific recognition by the UNESCO report of 1969, finally led to the formation, in 1975, of the Committee for the Preservation of the Acropolis Monuments. Miliades was immediately asked to join the Committee and became its first president. In the short period before his death, John Miliades laid the foundations of the work of restoration and conservation of the Acropolis on a firm theoretical and practical base, so that he himself was able to see, albeit at a late date, his labors finally justified.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία

συντήρηση και αποκατάσταση, Ακρόπολη, Αθήνα