Correspondent in London
Times were confused, Athens was no longer Athens. Since June 4, 1456, the Greek city has been under the yoke of the Ottomans. The troops of Sultan Mehmed II seized the city without a fight, when the Florentine Duke Francesco II Acciaiuoli opened the gates to them. Transformed into a church in the 6th century, the Parthenon becomes a mosque topped with its minaret. It was therefore in a city under trusteeship that Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin, landed at the dawn of the 19th century. He has just been appointed Ambassador to the Sublime Porte by King George III. Beyond his diplomatic mission, this man who prides himself on culture was convinced by the architect Thomas Harrison, follower of the “Greek Revival”, to seek beauty in the forms of Greek temples.This pushes him to take an interest in classical architecture, the finest examples of which are, according to him, not in Rome but in Athens. In his mind, it is only a question of reporting studies ...
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