Pope Francis is to return to Greece three fragments of Athens’ Parthenon temple, in what the Vatican called Friday a gesture of friendship.

The fragments from the Parthenon on the Acropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have been held for centuries in the papal collection and Vatican Museums.

Francis has decided “to donate” them to the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens, “as a concrete sign” of his desire to nurture interreligious relations, the Vatican said.

No date was given for the return of the fragments.

Greece’s cultural ministry welcomed the restitution, saying in a statement that it appreciated the pope’s “spiritual and fraternal gesture towards the Greek Orthodox Church”.

The Parthenon is one of the most famous ancient monuments in the world.

The temple was originally dedicated to the goddess Athena, before being transformed into a church and then a mosque.

The marble fragments include the head of a horse, one of the four horses drawing Athena’s mythical chariot, according to the Vatican Museums website.

It comes from the west front of the building, on which Athena and Poseidon – the god of the sea – were shown competing for dominion over Attica.

One of the three frieze and metope Parthenon fragments, a head of a horse that comes from the west front of the building, on which Athena and Poseidon were shown competing for dominion over Attica; the fragment here has been identified as the fourth horse pulling Athena’s chariot. Phidias. Photo: AAP via EPA/Athens Acropolis Museum

The second is the head of a young boy, believed to be depicted carrying a tray of voting cakes, which were offered during a procession to commemorate the founding of Athens.

One of the three frieze and metope Parthenon fragments, a relief with the head of a boy that has been identified as one of the figures from the frieze that went round the cella of the temple: he is carrying a tray of votive cakes which were offered during the Panathenaic procession in honour of Athena. Photo: AAP via EPA/Athens Acropolis Museum

The last is a bearded male head from an area of the building featuring a battle between the Lapiths, a mythical group of people, and Centaurs – creatures part horse, part man.

One of the three frieze and metope Parthenon fragments, a bearded male head, that has been attributed to one of the metopes from the southern side of the building where there was a battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs. Pope Francis has decided to return three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures which have been held in the Vatican museums, in the form of a “donation” to the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos II. The three fragments of Pentelic marble, which came into the Vatican in the 19th century, are part of the decorative sculpture of the Parthenon, the temple built on the Acropolis at Athens by Pericles (447-432 B.C.). The figurative decoration of the temple is the creative genius of the Athenian sculptor, Phidias. Photo: AAP via EPA/Athens Acropolis Museum

The Parthenon has not been a place of worship since it was partially destroyed during an attack by the Venetians in 1687, then looted.

Its fragments were scattered throughout the main museums of the world.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, Greece has been trying to recover them.

In 2008, the Vatican returned a fragment from the North frieze of the Parthenon, which it had been given in the early 19th century.

But others are less willing to set what some see as a dangerous precedent on returns.

The UK government warned the British Museum in London this month against a possible plan to hand back key pieces, saying it was legally forbidden to break up its vast collection.

Source: AFP