Adolf Weissenberg (1790–1840) was a Bavarian

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and archaeologist. He was appointed by

Otto of Greece Otto (; ; 1 June 1815 – 26 July 1867) was King of Greece from the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece on 27 May 1832, under the Convention of London, until he was deposed in October 1862. The second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ott ...

ephor The ephors were a board of five magistrates in ancient Sparta. They had an extensive range of judicial, religious, legislative, and military powers, and could shape Sparta's home and foreign affairs. The word "''ephors''" (Ancient Greek ''éph ...

of antiquities, overseeing all archaeology and archaeological sites in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, in 1833, but forced to resign in September 1834.

Career

Weissenberg was born in 1790. From 1822, he lived in Rome. In June 1833, he was appointed as "Ephor of Antiquities" () with responsibility for "the conservation, discovery and collection of the archaeological treasures of the kingdom". Three others were appointed with the title of 'sub-ephor' (): Kyriakos Pittakis, for central and northern Greece;

Ludwig Ross Ludwig Ross (22 July 1806 – 6 August 1859) was a German Classical archaeology, classical archaeologist. He is chiefly remembered for the rediscovery and reconstruction of the Temple of Athena Nike in 1835–1836, and for his other excavati ...

, for the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

, and for the Aegean Islands. On , Weissenberg was appointed to lead the

Greek Archaeological Service The Greek Archaeological Service () is a state service, under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture (Greece), Ministry of Culture, responsible for the oversight of all archaeological excavations, museums and the country's archaeologic ...

, which had notionally been established by Governor

Ioannis Kapodistrias Count Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias (; February 1776 –27 September 1831), sometimes anglicized as John Capodistrias, was a Greek statesman who was one of the most distinguished politicians and diplomats of 19th-century Europe. Kapodistrias's ...

in 1829 but lacked a formal administrative structure until then. Weissenberg's short tenure saw the passage of the Archaeological Law of 10/22 May 1834, which named all antiquities in Greece as the "national property of all the Greeks", asserted the ownership of the state over all archaeological sites not already on private land and created the core administrative structure of the Archaeological Service. Weissenberg drafted the law alongside the

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

Georg Ludwig von Maurer, and it was based upon a similar law of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

. Weissenberg was accused by Ross of lacking interest in antiquities, and had also attracted the enmity of

Josef Ludwig von Armansperg Josef Ludwig, Graf von Armansperg (; 28 February 1787 – 3 April 1853) served as the Interior and Finance Minister (1826–1828) and Foreign and Finance Minister (1828–1831) under Ludwig I of Bavaria, King Ludwig I of Bavaria in the government o ...

, head of the regency council, by trying to organise opposition to his government alongside von Maurer. Both Weissenberg and von Maurer were sacked (along with Kokkonis) in September 1834 and recalled to Bavaria. In Weissenberg's stead, Ross was named as Ephor General of Antiquities, with Pittakis and Athanasios Iatridis as his assistants. Weissenberg died in 1840.

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Explanatory notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weissenberg, Adolf 1790 births 1840 deaths Archaeologists from Bavaria Archaeology of Greece History of Greece (1832–1862)