Siege of the Acropolis
Part of theMorean War
Contemporary engraving depicting the Acropolis at the time of the siege. The trajectory of the shell that hit the Parthenon, causing its explosion, is marked.
Date 23–29 September 1687 Location Athens 37°58′18″N23°43′33″E / 37.97153°N 23.72574°E /37.97153; 23.72574 Result Surrender of theAcropolis of Athens; destruction of theParthenon
Belligerents
Republic of Venice	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Francesco Morosini Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck	Unknown
Strength
10,750	Unknown

Thesiege of the Acropolis took place on 23–29 September 1687, as theVenetian forces underFrancesco Morosini andOtto Wilhelm Königsmarck laid siege to theAcropolis of Athens, held by theOttoman garrison of the city. The siege resulted in the destruction of a large part of theParthenon, which the Ottomans used as a gunpowder store.

As part of theMorean War, theVenetians had landed on thePeloponnese peninsula (then known as "Morea") in southern Greece, and in a series of campaigns in 1685–1687 had managed to wrest it from theOttoman forces holding it.^[1][2] The Venetian position in the Morea was unsafe, however, as the Ottoman strongholds ofThebes and Negroponte (Chalkis) provided the Ottoman Empire with excellent bases for an invasion and reconquest of the peninsula.^[3] As a result, the Venetian commanders, underFrancesco Morosini, decided to expand their campaign into easternCentral Greece, withAthens as the first target. On 21 September 1687, Königsmarck's army, 10,750 men strong, landed atEleusis, while the Venetian fleet enteredPiraeus. The Turks quickly evacuated the town of Athens, but the garrison withdrew to the ancientAcropolis of Athens, determined to hold out until reinforcements arrived from Thebes. The Venetian army set up cannon and mortar batteries on thePnyx and other heights around the city and began a siege of the Acropolis. The Ottomans first demolished theTemple of Athena Nike to erect a cannon battery, and on 25 September, a Venetian cannonball exploded a powder magazine in thePropylaea. The most important damage caused was the destruction of theParthenon. The Turks used the temple for ammunition storage, and when, on the evening of 26 September 1687, a mortar shell hit the building, the resulting explosion killed 300 people and led to the complete destruction of the temple's roof and most of the walls. Despite the enormous destruction caused by the "miraculous shot", as Morosini called it, the Turks continued to defend the fort until a relief attempt from the Ottoman army from Thebes was repulsed by Königsmarck on 28 September. The garrison then capitulated, on condition of being transported toSmyrna, on the next day.^[4][5]

Despite the fall of Athens, Morosini's position was not secure. The Ottomans were amassing an army at Thebes, and their 2,000-strong cavalry effectively controlledAttica, limiting the Venetians to the environs of Athens, so that the Venetians had to establish forts to secure the road linking Athens to Piraeus. On 26 December, the 1,400-strong remnant of the Hannoverian contingent departed, and a new outbreak of the plague during the winter further weakened the Venetian forces. The Venetians managed to recruit 500Arvanites from the rural population of Attica as soldiers, but no other Greeks were willing to join the Venetian army. In a council on 31 December, it was decided to abandon Athens and focus on other projects, such as the conquest of Negroponte. A camp was fortified at theMunychia to cover the evacuation, and it was suggested, but not agreed on, that the walls of the Acropolis should be razed. As the Venetian preparations to leave became evident, many Athenians chose to leave, fearing Ottoman reprisals: 622 families, some 4,000–5,000 people, were evacuated by Venetian ships and settled as colonists inArgolis,Corinthia, Patras, and Aegean islands. Morosini decided to at least take back a few ancient monuments as spoils, but on 19 March the statues ofPoseidon and the chariot ofNike fell down and smashed into pieces as they were being removed from the westernpediment of the Parthenon. The Venetians abandoned the attempt to remove further sculptures from the temple, and instead took a few marble lions, including the famousPiraeus Lion, which had given the harbour its medieval name "Porto Leone", and which today stands at the entrance of theVenetian Arsenal. On 10 April, the Venetians evacuated Attica and returned to the Morea.^[6][7]

• Chasiotis, Ioannis (1975). "Η κάμψη της Οθωμανικής δυνάμεως" [The decline of Ottoman power]. In Christopoulos, Georgios A. & Bastias, Ioannis K. (eds.).Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Τόμος ΙΑ΄: Ο Ελληνισμός υπό ξένη κυριαρχία (περίοδος 1669 - 1821), Τουρκοκρατία - Λατινοκρατία [History of the Greek Nation, Volume XI: Hellenism under Foreign Rule (Period 1669 - 1821), Turkocracy – Latinocracy] (in Greek). Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon.ISBN 978-960-213-100-8.
• Finlay, George (1877).A History of Greece from its Conquest by the Romans to the Present Time, B.C. 146 to A.D. 1864, Vol. V: Greece under Othoman and Venetian Domination A.D. 1453–1821. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Paton, James Morton (1940).The Venetians in Athens, 1687–1688, from theIstoria of Cristoforo Ivanovich. Gennadeion Monographs I. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

• Chatziaslani, Kornilia."Morosini in Athens". Archaeology of the city of Athens. Retrieved2008-06-11.

• Conflicts in 1687
• Ottoman Athens
• Sieges involving the Ottoman Empire
• Sieges involving the Republic of Venice
• Sieges of Athens
• Acropolis of Athens
• 17th century in Greece
• 1687 in the Ottoman Empire
• Battles of the Morean War
• Sieges of the Ottoman–Venetian Wars

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