In what year did construction of the Parthenon begin?

Construction of the Parthenon began in 447 BC. The temple was commissioned during Athens’ great building program under the statesman Pericles, when the city was the leading power in the Delian League.

The project replaced an earlier temple damaged by the Persian sack of Athens in 480 BC. Architects Ictinus and Callicrates designed the new building on the Acropolis, while Phidias supervised its sculptural decoration. The main structure was substantially finished by 438 BC, although work on sculptures and other decoration continued for several more years, reaching completion around 432 BC.

A common mix-up is confusing the start date of the present Parthenon with the earlier “Older Parthenon,” whose construction began in the early fifth century BC and was interrupted by the Persian invasion. The 447 BC date refers to the surviving classical temple, not that earlier predecessor. The building also served practical purposes: for a time, its western chamber housed the treasury of the Delian League.