Philhellenes in Nineteenth-Century Greece: The Case of Eduard Schaubert

abstract:This article considers the work of the Wrocław-based architect Eduard Schaubert during the twenty years he spent in Greece. His involvement in the conservation and documentation of the heritage of antique material culture demonstrates his commitment to the ideals of philhellenism, a phenomenon spreading across Europe with new momentum and in a new form at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This trend fueled political and cultural transformations associated with modernity, resulting in an independent Greek state and the influx of Western European lovers of ancient Greece. The image of Schaubert is compared to that of other Western European philhellenes arriving in the first half of the nineteenth century in the “land of the Hellenes.”