The colossal task of restoring the Acropolis can be split down into a number of smaller projects focussing on the individual buildings within the site. Dr Tassos Tanoulas who is in charge of the restoration of the Propylaea (the gateway building through which you pass to enter the Acropolis) is speaking in London about the part of the restoration work that he has overseen.

From:
Kathimerini

Saturday November 20, 2004
King’s College London to host lecture on history and restoration of the Propylaea by Dr Tassos Tanoulas

This Monday, November 22 at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Strand Campus of King’s College London, the Greek Archaeological Committee (UK), with its president Matti Egon, a founding member, and her husband Nicholas, is presenting a lecture by Dr Tassos Tanoulas, the architect in charge of the project of restoring the Propylaea, which the Culture Ministry began in 1982.

Since 1984, when he took over the restoration of the northern wing, and 1986, when he undertook responsibility for the entire restoration project, architect Tanoulas has followed every stage in the progress of the work on the site from the scaffolding.

It requires the utmost care to dismantle the segments, remove the rusty metal joints used in the 1909-17 restoration by Balanos, and replace the drums, columns, capitals and pediments.

The eastern side and the northern wall of the central Propylaea structure were ready in August 2002 for the visitors to the Olympic Games. The project is scheduled for completion in 2006.

Tanoulas is just the right person to talk about the restoration to the well-informed audience that flocks to the Greek Archaeological Committee’s lectures.

He was born in 1947 in Thessaloniki, where he studied architecture, before going to England for postgraduate studies at York on a Fulbright scholarship, after which he completed his PhD from the National Technical University in Athens.

The photos, being published for the first time, show some stages in the progress of the work.