A Venetian bombardment caused the Parthenon’s catastrophic explosion in 1687. During the Morean War, Venetian forces led by Francesco Morosini besieged the Ottoman-held Acropolis in Athens. The Ottomans were using the Parthenon as a gunpowder magazine when a Venetian shot ignited the store on 26 September.
The blast tore through the ancient temple, collapsing much of its central structure and damaging its sculptural decoration. Although the Parthenon had already been altered over the centuries—first as a Christian church and later as a mosque—the explosion gave the building much of the ruined appearance familiar today.
The event is sometimes described simply as the “Morosini explosion,” after the Venetian commander. It was not the result of the temple’s original construction or a later museum removal. The bombardment also affected other monuments and defensive structures on the Acropolis during the siege.
The disaster is especially important when tracing the survival of the Parthenon sculptures. Some works were damaged in 1687, while others survived and were later removed, including portions taken to Britain in the early nineteenth century by Lord Elgin.