New lighting system illuminates Greece’s Acropolis

The lights aim to bring out the best of Athens’s iconic landmark

Yesterday evening, 30 September 2020, local and national officials gathered at Greece’s Acropolis to unveil its new LED lighting system, meant to highlight its best features and promote the site and its surroundings.

The design of the new system that now illuminates the landmark was made by Eleftheria Deko- the renowned lighting designer, who won an Emmy for the lighting of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2000 Athens Olympic Games.

A point of national pride

Eleftheria Deko was approached with the idea of designing the Acropolis’ new lighting system by the Onassis Foundation. Work on the project then began at the onset of 2020. Its first trials then took place at the start of September when on her Facebook Deko wrote that “The wonderful journey whose preparation started 9 months ago reaches its most creative phase! In the programming of lighting, in the diligence of every detail, etc. 9 months of design, studies, presentations at CAS, hard work, coronavirus, fatigue, agony…

Lighting the sacred rock of the Acropolis and its monuments - one of the most important moments of my professional career. Probably the highest prize!”

The massive project was a truly ambitious endeavour meant to bring a brand new look to the most iconic Greek landmark. The unveiling of the new lighting system was attended both by local officials as well as by members of the national government – including Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Culture Minister Lina Mendoni. Their presence alone is a testament to the importance of the project and the high regard in which the team responsible is held.

Yet this is just the beginning - the Parthenon lighting system is just one of a series of projects funded and developed by the Onassis Foundation meant to beautify and reinvigorate the entirety of the Acropolis and its surrounding infrastructure and to make it an even more important and visible point of pride for Athens and Greece as a whole.