Portraits of Ottoman Athens from Martin Crusius to Strategos Makriyannis

On two occasions, in 1436 and 1444, diplomat and antiquarian Cyriac of Ancona visited Athens and sketched the city’s antiquities. Most famous is his drawing of the Parthenon’s west facade, which he depicted not as it was – the entrance to a Catholic church with a high tower of reused ancient marble – but as he wanted it to be – an ancient temple in pristine condition.¹ In 1458, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II also ascended the citadel of Athens and ‘from the ruins and the remains, he reconstructed mentally the ancient buildings, being a wise man and as a great king, and