eli5 why ancient historical buildings haven’t been kept up? Why are buildings like the Parthenon and the Colosseum in such disrepair? Greece and Rome/Italy have existed the entire time?
In: 508
The same reason why any building falls into disrepair over time. Funds and manpower are allocated to newer building projects or government officials don’t think they’re worth it.
Other have already made some good points, the difficulty or resource poverty to repair damaged buildings, and cultural changes that meant some buildings suddenly become undesirable.
At which point they have often been converted into a five fingered discount quarry.
They have been very, very vulnerable to resource looting. Sometimes for ordinary buildings, sometimes for other monuments and other religious buildings.
Often new churches were built on the same site as the former temples, renovating or reusing older parts of the structures.
Some were also used as churches without much adaptation, like the Pantheon, which is still to this day an active church. Though a pope did mug it during the 17th century and absconded with a lot of bronze and marble to build the Barberini Palace.
In the eastern part of the roman empire (byzantine empire) many temples and shrines were demolished by decree and reused to build new churches.
A church in Hagios Kosmas used stones and columns from a shrine to Aphrodite. As far as researchers can tell just about every bit of that shrine is gone and more or less recycled into various structures, some which are also long gone by now.
Quite a bit of the Colosseum that had been damaged by earthquakes and then some was carted off to build medieval and renaissance Rome, until a pope in 1744 put his slipper down and banned the practice as well as declaring it a protected site that could not be demolished. Parts of it is in Barberini Palace, Piazza Venezia and St. Peter’s.
You can find stones from a building dedicated to Ramses II (Died 1213 BC) used miles and miles away from it’s original place to build the gateway for Shoshenq III (Died 798 BC).
For when you still wants that glorious builder prestige but haven’t quite got the same budget. In that case Ramses was from a very different family and time, but Shoseng III wasn’t averse to taking from his direct ancestors either.
Recycled sarcophaguses too. Some previous occupants might have been dumped who knows where, and some found themselves reinterred in less fancy environments with new roommates.
And some dispensed with relocating entirely and just cleared out the previous incumbent, relabeled stuff and moved in after death.
If people ever wonder why we don’t know where more pharaohs, their relatives and other dignitaries mummies are and who’s whom, this is also one of the reasons. You can’t even trust these people to stay in their own graves.
Other have already made some good points, the difficulty or resource poverty to repair damaged buildings, and cultural changes that meant some buildings suddenly become undesirable.
At which point they have often been converted into a five fingered discount quarry.
They have been very, very vulnerable to resource looting. Sometimes for ordinary buildings, sometimes for other monuments and other religious buildings.
Often new churches were built on the same site as the former temples, renovating or reusing older parts of the structures.
Some were also used as churches without much adaptation, like the Pantheon, which is still to this day an active church. Though a pope did mug it during the 17th century and absconded with a lot of bronze and marble to build the Barberini Palace.
In the eastern part of the roman empire (byzantine empire) many temples and shrines were demolished by decree and reused to build new churches.
A church in Hagios Kosmas used stones and columns from a shrine to Aphrodite. As far as researchers can tell just about every bit of that shrine is gone and more or less recycled into various structures, some which are also long gone by now.
Quite a bit of the Colosseum that had been damaged by earthquakes and then some was carted off to build medieval and renaissance Rome, until a pope in 1744 put his slipper down and banned the practice as well as declaring it a protected site that could not be demolished. Parts of it is in Barberini Palace, Piazza Venezia and St. Peter’s.
You can find stones from a building dedicated to Ramses II (Died 1213 BC) used miles and miles away from it’s original place to build the gateway for Shoshenq III (Died 798 BC).
For when you still wants that glorious builder prestige but haven’t quite got the same budget. In that case Ramses was from a very different family and time, but Shoseng III wasn’t averse to taking from his direct ancestors either.
Recycled sarcophaguses too. Some previous occupants might have been dumped who knows where, and some found themselves reinterred in less fancy environments with new roommates.
And some dispensed with relocating entirely and just cleared out the previous incumbent, relabeled stuff and moved in after death.
If people ever wonder why we don’t know where more pharaohs, their relatives and other dignitaries mummies are and who’s whom, this is also one of the reasons. You can’t even trust these people to stay in their own graves.
Other have already made some good points, the difficulty or resource poverty to repair damaged buildings, and cultural changes that meant some buildings suddenly become undesirable.
At which point they have often been converted into a five fingered discount quarry.
They have been very, very vulnerable to resource looting. Sometimes for ordinary buildings, sometimes for other monuments and other religious buildings.
Often new churches were built on the same site as the former temples, renovating or reusing older parts of the structures.
Some were also used as churches without much adaptation, like the Pantheon, which is still to this day an active church. Though a pope did mug it during the 17th century and absconded with a lot of bronze and marble to build the Barberini Palace.
In the eastern part of the roman empire (byzantine empire) many temples and shrines were demolished by decree and reused to build new churches.
A church in Hagios Kosmas used stones and columns from a shrine to Aphrodite. As far as researchers can tell just about every bit of that shrine is gone and more or less recycled into various structures, some which are also long gone by now.
Quite a bit of the Colosseum that had been damaged by earthquakes and then some was carted off to build medieval and renaissance Rome, until a pope in 1744 put his slipper down and banned the practice as well as declaring it a protected site that could not be demolished. Parts of it is in Barberini Palace, Piazza Venezia and St. Peter’s.
You can find stones from a building dedicated to Ramses II (Died 1213 BC) used miles and miles away from it’s original place to build the gateway for Shoshenq III (Died 798 BC).
For when you still wants that glorious builder prestige but haven’t quite got the same budget. In that case Ramses was from a very different family and time, but Shoseng III wasn’t averse to taking from his direct ancestors either.
Recycled sarcophaguses too. Some previous occupants might have been dumped who knows where, and some found themselves reinterred in less fancy environments with new roommates.
And some dispensed with relocating entirely and just cleared out the previous incumbent, relabeled stuff and moved in after death.
If people ever wonder why we don’t know where more pharaohs, their relatives and other dignitaries mummies are and who’s whom, this is also one of the reasons. You can’t even trust these people to stay in their own graves.
These two examples have pretty specific causes. u/bastardlyann mentioned the Parthenon’s being blown up in the Morean War.
The Colosseum’s a bit different. It had little purpose after the fall of the Empire—it could have comforably held medieval Rome’s entire population twice over. As a building robbed of its purpose, it not only was too much to maintain, but it was a great source of materials. Many of the iron clamps that had held its stones together were pried out and melted down. The marble façade and travertine core—especially where had already fallen down in earthquakes—was effectively re-quarried, as it was much easier to obtain and closer to hand than anything from a quarry. Some of it was used in the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in the 16th century. Some of it was just burned to make quicklime (useful in making steel and cement).
Contrast this to the Pantheon, Rome’s oldest standing building, which was repurposed into a church in the 600s. Or the Castel St Angelo, originally the tomb of Hadrian but rebuilt into the main fortress defending the Vatican. Neither building survives exactly as a late Imperial citizen would have seen them, but nor are they ramshackle ruins. These buildings (and there are many other examples, like the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, or the Cathedral of Syracuse in Sicily) have managed to remain useful to their city’s inhabitants for many, many centuries, in different forms and with different uses. (You’ll note that religious buildings tend to do well with this; the Parthenon was also used as a church for many centuries.)
Buildings that aren’t adaptable—like the medieval walls of many European cities, or indeed many of the shopping malls of 1960s America—tend to just be viewed as in the way (or a source of materials for new building) and often get cleared away.
These two examples have pretty specific causes. u/bastardlyann mentioned the Parthenon’s being blown up in the Morean War.
The Colosseum’s a bit different. It had little purpose after the fall of the Empire—it could have comforably held medieval Rome’s entire population twice over. As a building robbed of its purpose, it not only was too much to maintain, but it was a great source of materials. Many of the iron clamps that had held its stones together were pried out and melted down. The marble façade and travertine core—especially where had already fallen down in earthquakes—was effectively re-quarried, as it was much easier to obtain and closer to hand than anything from a quarry. Some of it was used in the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in the 16th century. Some of it was just burned to make quicklime (useful in making steel and cement).
Contrast this to the Pantheon, Rome’s oldest standing building, which was repurposed into a church in the 600s. Or the Castel St Angelo, originally the tomb of Hadrian but rebuilt into the main fortress defending the Vatican. Neither building survives exactly as a late Imperial citizen would have seen them, but nor are they ramshackle ruins. These buildings (and there are many other examples, like the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, or the Cathedral of Syracuse in Sicily) have managed to remain useful to their city’s inhabitants for many, many centuries, in different forms and with different uses. (You’ll note that religious buildings tend to do well with this; the Parthenon was also used as a church for many centuries.)
Buildings that aren’t adaptable—like the medieval walls of many European cities, or indeed many of the shopping malls of 1960s America—tend to just be viewed as in the way (or a source of materials for new building) and often get cleared away.
These two examples have pretty specific causes. u/bastardlyann mentioned the Parthenon’s being blown up in the Morean War.
The Colosseum’s a bit different. It had little purpose after the fall of the Empire—it could have comforably held medieval Rome’s entire population twice over. As a building robbed of its purpose, it not only was too much to maintain, but it was a great source of materials. Many of the iron clamps that had held its stones together were pried out and melted down. The marble façade and travertine core—especially where had already fallen down in earthquakes—was effectively re-quarried, as it was much easier to obtain and closer to hand than anything from a quarry. Some of it was used in the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in the 16th century. Some of it was just burned to make quicklime (useful in making steel and cement).
Contrast this to the Pantheon, Rome’s oldest standing building, which was repurposed into a church in the 600s. Or the Castel St Angelo, originally the tomb of Hadrian but rebuilt into the main fortress defending the Vatican. Neither building survives exactly as a late Imperial citizen would have seen them, but nor are they ramshackle ruins. These buildings (and there are many other examples, like the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, or the Cathedral of Syracuse in Sicily) have managed to remain useful to their city’s inhabitants for many, many centuries, in different forms and with different uses. (You’ll note that religious buildings tend to do well with this; the Parthenon was also used as a church for many centuries.)
Buildings that aren’t adaptable—like the medieval walls of many European cities, or indeed many of the shopping malls of 1960s America—tend to just be viewed as in the way (or a source of materials for new building) and often get cleared away.
It’s important to note that the Parthenon didn’t degrade slowly over time, and crumbled out of neglect. It was actively blown up. OK it might have been already degraded when it was blown up, but it was still a structure intact enough to store munitions. Then the Venetians lobbed a bomb that ignited the munitions and Kaboom… no more Parthenon.
Today it’s parts are being cataloged and when possible, reassembled. SOME of the parts are in museums around the world, so to fully reassemble the parts would require taking them out of museums and placing them back into unprotected open air… an untenable idea for museums, or would require manufacturing new replica parts, which has been done in a few cases.
It’s important to note that the Parthenon didn’t degrade slowly over time, and crumbled out of neglect. It was actively blown up. OK it might have been already degraded when it was blown up, but it was still a structure intact enough to store munitions. Then the Venetians lobbed a bomb that ignited the munitions and Kaboom… no more Parthenon.
Today it’s parts are being cataloged and when possible, reassembled. SOME of the parts are in museums around the world, so to fully reassemble the parts would require taking them out of museums and placing them back into unprotected open air… an untenable idea for museums, or would require manufacturing new replica parts, which has been done in a few cases.
It’s important to note that the Parthenon didn’t degrade slowly over time, and crumbled out of neglect. It was actively blown up. OK it might have been already degraded when it was blown up, but it was still a structure intact enough to store munitions. Then the Venetians lobbed a bomb that ignited the munitions and Kaboom… no more Parthenon.
Today it’s parts are being cataloged and when possible, reassembled. SOME of the parts are in museums around the world, so to fully reassemble the parts would require taking them out of museums and placing them back into unprotected open air… an untenable idea for museums, or would require manufacturing new replica parts, which has been done in a few cases.
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