Acropolis in a whole new light
Even if beauty cannot save the world, it can make it better.
From rooftops and balconies across central Athens – from the National Observatory to Mount Lycabettus, and from Koukaki to Monastiraki: wherever you may be on Wednesday, September 30 at 20:00, look up at the Acropolis to experience three minutes filled with light.
Embedded media
If you want to enjoy embedded rich media, please customize your cookie settings to allow for Performance and Targeting cookies. Your data may be transferred to third-party services such as YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud and Issuu.
When invited by the Greek state to assist in the redesign of the Acropolis lighting in Athens, it was the duty of all of us at the Onassis Foundation to rise to the occasion, to help shine a light on this intangible quintessence of history. Democracy as truth, human rights as values – these are things that ought to be lit symbolically. Today, more than ever, we as citizens need to see the world of the Parthenon anew – brighter, clearer, and more reassuring than ever. In these dark times, faced with a pandemic that threatens to close us in, light seems to be the most powerful symbol of all.
Acropolis in a whole new light
Image1/5
Photo: Stelios Tzetzias
OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE NEW ACROPOLIS LIGHTING – LIVE STREAM, 09.30.2020 at 20:00
These illuminations breathe new life into the marbles on the Acropolis. But it’s not just about esthetics: the project is also a major upgrade of the existing infrastructure, bringing the electric power system and automated lighting control systems right up to date. It highlights the fortification walls, the Acropolis rock as a whole, and the volumes and geometries of each monument from every possible viewpoint. The marbles – now whiter than ever before – reflect every facet, every geometric shape, and every natural material in order to accentuate each monument’s decorative reliefs.
This new perspective now lights fourteen landmarks: the Acropolis rock, the fortification walls, the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheion, the Ancient Theater of Dionysos, the Stoa of Eumenes, the Shrine of Dionysos Eleutherios, and another five monuments illuminated for the first time – the Monument of Thrasyllos, the choragic columns, the Asklepieion, the Cave Sanctuaries of Apollo and Aglauros / Klepsydra, and the Shrine of Aphrodite.
2D and 3D modelled designs, luminosity readings, calculations, test after test – all to achieve illuminations that would make the Parthenon and every other monument on the Acropolis gleam bright, as they rightly deserve, in the heart of our city. Shining the light of our country’s culture all around, the world over.
All electrical switchboards have been changed, and the existing HID lights replaced with 609 cutting-edge, high color fidelity LED lighting fixtures (that’s 40% fewer than before) as part of the technical upgrade, with a view to the new installation running without issue for over twenty years. The new lighting fixtures have minimal maintenance costs, and the newly installed system delivers energy savings of more than 65%. Light pollution has also been reduced through improved target alignment with the monuments.
Photo: Gavriil Papadiotis
The new lighting of the Acropolis wins three awards in the [D]arc Awards 2020: The Best Exterior Lighting Scheme on the Structures category: High Budget of the [d]arc Awards 2020, the Best Creative Lighting Event Award 2020 and the Best of the Best Lighting Design Award 2020. About the last one, it is an award given to the project that received the most amount votes out of all project category winners. This year, a massive 14,000 votes were cast in total and the Acropolis lighting received the majority of them.
