As part of the Morean War, the Venetians had landed on the Peloponnese peninsula (then known as "Morea") in southern Greece, and in a series of campaigns in 1685–1687 had managed to wrest it from the Ottoman forces holding it.

[3] As a result, the Venetian commanders, under Francesco Morosini, decided to expand their campaign into eastern Central Greece, with Athens as the first target.

The Ottomans first demolished the Temple of Athena Nike to erect a cannon battery, and on 25 September, a Venetian cannonball exploded a powder magazine in the Propylaea.

Despite the enormous destruction caused by the "miraculous shot", as Morosini called it, the Turks continued to defend the fort until a relief attempt from the Ottoman army from Thebes was repulsed by Königsmarck on 28 September.

Morosini decided to at least take back a few ancient monuments as spoils, but on 19 March the statues of Poseidon and the chariot of Nike fell down and smashed into pieces as they were being removed from the western pediment of the Parthenon.