The New Acropolis Museum : A valuable moment for any architect

How can I even star to describe what I felt during my first visit and what I feel every single time that I return?
On Dionysiou Areopagitou, southeast of the Parthenon, a location carefully selected to enable a dialogue between the Museum’s exhibition spaces and the Acropolis, it provides a safe and beautiful home for the masterpieces of the Acropolis ensuring that they are given the prominence that they deserve and reminds people of the need to bring back the Parthenon marbles gruesomely carved out by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century.

Bernard Tschumi and Michalis Fotiadis, the architects, created this modernist building whose simple and precise design invokes the mathematical and conceptual clarity of ancient Greek architecture.

Natural light smoothly entering the building from all sides gives it an almost ethereal feel, besides its huge volume, and you probably won’t get the usual “museum fatigue” feel that you may associate with other large museums.

Nothing had prepared me for the beauty of the museum until I entered the gallery of the slopes with the inclined glass floor that alludes to the ascent to the Acropolis itself. This inclined floor is a dramatic design point as, in antiquity, the slopes of the Sacred Rock of the Acropolis constituted the transition zone between the city and its most famous sanctuary. And behind me, monitoring my every move, the Cariatides overlooking the gallery of the Acropolis slopes. You ascend until you reach the main gallery on the next level.

The contrast from the ground floor to the Archaic Gallery is spectacular. The space suddenly opens up and the sunlight flooding into this gallery completely changes the atmosphere of the museum. This immense area is filled with the great light of Attica streaming through the gallery’s wall of glass. The experience of walking around the beautiful statues and marbles, not just in front of them, is unique and created a sense of intimacy between the me and the exhibits, a unique feeling of peace and serenity.

The raison d’être of the museum, however, is its third floor, the Parthenon Gallery, a rectangular, glass-enclosed, sky-lit space that is rotated 23 degrees from the rest of the building so as to align with the Parthenon. The direct visual contact with the Parthenon, the actual marbles, though fragmented and disembodied (friezes, metopes and pediments) took my breath away.

Honestly, a priceless visit!

A joyful annoucement

Greece is one of the few countries in the world where the folk dances are as alive today as they were in ancient times. Dance has always played an important role in the life of a Greek. It is an expression of human feelings and everyday life.
The Greeks danced at religious festivals, ceremonies; they danced to ensure fertility; they danced to prepare for war and to celebrate victories; they danced at weddings; they danced to overcome depression and to cure physical illness.
Almost every dance has a story to tell.
The islands offer joyous dances, graceful, flirtatious with a “watery” flow to them.
The rugged mountainous and steep gorges impose heavy garments and boots, so the dances tend to be slow, heavy and danced with immense dignity. In the fertile plains of Thessalia, dances are slow and controlled and a strong physique is necessary. In Northern Greece, dances become thrilling, boisterous, lively and very sharp.
My friend Ageliki (the very first one dancing!) with her dancing group are dancing the “Kageli”, from Greece’s mainland. “Kageli” in the local dialect means joyful announcement and people used to dance it during celebrations that gathered the whole village together. It starts with a slow and controlled tempo and becomes more lively.
Happy birthday Agelikoula! Enjoy!