The lost Frankish Tower: The medieval giant that was “erased” from the Acropolis to create a false image of pure antiquity

When the Ottoman Empire took control of Greece in the 15th century, the entire Acropolis was completely transformed into a bustling, crowded neighborhood. The iconic Parthenon was converted into a working mosque, complete with a tall minaret reaching into the sky. Meanwhile, the ancient Erechtheion temple was famously repurposed to house the local governor’s harem (although modern historians suspect this was just a myth inspired by the temple’s famous female statues). The Frankish Tower remained standing through all of this, keeping its role as a high-security prison and salt store. During this era, the Acropolis was a living, breathing community rather than a silent museum. For nearly 400 years, Greece remained under Ottoman rule, ending only after the Greek War of Independence in 1821.

After winning independence in the 19th century, Greek leaders launched a radical campaign to remove all foreign influence from the Acropolis. Their goal was to destroy medieval, Byzantine, and Ottoman structures to manufacture a myth of pure, untouched antiquity. The Parthenon’s Ottoman additions were the very first casualties. By the mid-1840s, the government had completely demolished both the towering minaret and the small mosque built inside the ruins.

Despite surviving the Greek War of Independence as a military lookout, the Frankish Tower could not survive its fate. The broken Greek government could not afford to tear it down, so the wealthy German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann paid 12,000 francs out of his own pocket to fund the demolition. Schliemann used this massive donation to gain the trust of the Greek authorities, helping him secure prestigious excavation permits at other historical sites in Greece. Schliemann considered the 600-year-old medieval giant an ugly eyesore that ruined his idealized ancient view of the hill. Despite considerable protests from international historians who condemned the act, the 85-foot-tall tower was completely erased by October 1875.

Many academics and archaeologists in the 19th and early 20th centuries were opposed to the tower’s destruction. Today, the academic consensus is that the destruction of the medieval and Ottoman layers of the Acropolis was a loss of historical data driven by nationalism rather than sound science. However, the destruction of the Frankish Tower is certainly not an isolated incident. All over the world, governments have frequently erased layers of real history to create a “perfect” version of the past. You can see the results of this controversial practice in famous monuments across Italy, Egypt, France, and many other places around the world. In each of these countries, leaders deliberately removed centuries of authentic heritage to isolate and highlight one specific ancient era. Ultimately, this proves that many of the historical sites we visit today were heavily edited and staged.