"The First Restoration Program of the Parthenon reflects the new spirit and new demands of the time, in terms of the interventions on monuments. An effort to effect them with high quality and in a scholarly way is seen in the establishment of an interdisciplinary committee to determine the programme and to supervise the works, the drawing up of preliminary proposals for the intervention with graphic documentation, the use of contemporary mechanical worksite equipment, the use of superior materials that do not harm the monuments (imported from abroad), and the involvement of specialized personnel.
The Programme signals also the beginning of work on the Acropolis by the county-engineer, Nikolaos Balanos, who was given the responsibility of carrying out the work, which was considered to a large extent technical. The work is of particular significance for the theoretical considerations that accompanied it in all its phases concerning the limits, techniques and material for accomplishing the work. This would have a decisive influence on Balanos in the development of his approach to anastelosis.
The Erechtheion was the first monument on which Balanos completed his intervention. Here were applied for the first time the techniques that were to characterize his work: the incorporation of heavy metal reinforcements in the architectural members, with the cutting out and removal of much of the mass of the ancient members, the use of various ancient members and fragments that lay scattered on the ground, as ordinary building material in order to fill in and restore sections of the monument."
— Acropolis Restoration Service
A picture of the Parthenon during the last quarter of the 19th century. Public domain work made avai...
Postcard of the Parthenon after a storm, made available by Europeana Collections.
