Museums you can visit while in Athens

In Athens there are many museums you can visit to learn more about Greek history and culture. The new Acropolis museum is one of the best museums in the world. In the Byzantine museum you will admire artifacts from the period of the Byzantine empire. There is also the Cycladic museum with artifacts from the 5th millennium B.C. The National historical museum, the Hellenic maritime museum, the War museum and many more! Click for the list of Athens museums...

The Acropolis Museum

The new Acropolis Museum was open on 2009, it is considered as one of the best in the world. It temporarily houses masterpieces of the ancient Greek civilization, dedicated to the most important of the Athenian sanctuaries, the temenos of Athena Parthenos. The collections of the museum include: Sculptural offerings of the Archaic period – Pediments of temples dated to the Archaic period – Archaic Horsemen – Sculptures of the Severe style – Pediments and metopes from the Parthenon – The Parthenon frieze (most important) – The Erechtheion frieze – Parapets of the Athena Nike temple – Frieze of the Athena Nike temple – The Caryatids – Clay figurines and vases from the sanctuary of the Nymphs.

National museum

The National Archaeological Museum of Athens is one of the largest and most important Museums concerning ancient Greek art. The building was inaugurated in 1889,it had expanded during the Middle War Period and owns nowadays a gallery exhibition space of 8000 m2. Exhibition shows the long evolution of the ancient Greek art and history from the Prehistoric Collection, which includes works of the great civilizations that developed in the Aegean from the sixth millennium BC to 1050 BC (Neolithic, Cycladic, Mycenaean), and finds from the prehistoric settlement at Thira. Sculptures Collection presents the development of ancient Greek sculpture from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC with unique masterpieces. The Vase and Minor Objects Collection, which contains representative works of ancient Greek pottery from the eleventh century BC to the Roman period and includes the Stathatos Collection, a corpus of minor objects of all periods. The Metallurgy Collection has a lot of fundamental statues, figurines and minor objects. Finally, the only Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection in Greece, with works dating from the pre-dynastic period (5000 BC) to the Roman conquest.

Cycladic Museum

More than 3.000 objects of Cycladic, Ancient Greek and Cypriot art (dating from the 5th millennium B.C. to the 6th century A.D.) are displayed in the galleries of the four floors of the Museum of Cycladic Art. The Museum owns one of the most important collections Cycladic Art worldwide and hosts major archaeological, modern and contemporary art exhibitions.

Byzantine Museum

It was founded in 1914 and constitutes one of the most important national museums of Greece. The artifacts organized as collections, exceed 30,000 and are dated from the 3rd to the 20th century. The permanent exhibit of the museum offers the visitor a unique Opportunity to discover to discover aspects of Byzantine and modern art from a museological point of view. In the first part of the permanent exhibit, the passage from the ancient world to the Byzantine world is depicted. The new section of the exhibit hosts collection of post Byzantine artifacts which brings to light various aspects of the historical period of Byzantium through to the modern age (15th -20th century). Many of these artifacts are being exhibited for the first time.

National Historical Museum

The Museum narrates the history of Modern Greece: from the fall of Constantinople (1453) to the period of Ottoman and Latin rule, the Greek War of Independence (1821), the liberation struggles, the creation of an independent state, the political, social and spiritual development of the Greeks up to the present day.

Numismatic Museum

The Numismatic Museum is housed in the Iliou Melathron,once the residence of famous archaeological Heinrich Schliemann and is the work of architect Ernest Ziller. The permanent collection presents the history of coins from the ancient Greek world until modern times, showcasing the methods of production and production and control, the numismatic system ,the symbolism of the depictions, the market value and the coin circulation, as well as the people’ relationship with money.

Hellenic Maritime Museum

The Hellenic Maritime Museum was founded in 1949 in Piraeus. There are approximately 2500 artifacts on display –namely scale models of ships, paintings, guns, uniforms, medals, maps, flags, nautical instruments-which brings to life Hellenic Maritime history and tradition from prehistoric times until today. There is also a specialized library with 13.000 volumes and rich archival photographic material, a collection of rare maps (16th – 19th century) and also collection of ship building plans of Hellenic warships.

Museum of the city of Athens

The museum presents the modern history of Athens, Europe’s oldest and most famous city, since it became the capital of the newly founded Hellenic State in 1834 under the first royal couple, Otto and Amalia. Your tour will also include many other facets of Athenian history, culture and life. Several other collections and a series of typical late 19th century- early 20th century sitting and living rooms of the Athenian aristocracy complete the different aspects of our city offered by the Museum.

War Museum

The museum exhibits are collections of the Greek Army, with material from the war history of Greece from the prehistoric times to nowadays as well as war artifacts from other countries.

Museum of traditional instruments

The museum has a huge collection of all kinds of local instruments from all over the country.Inside you will see the Greek equivalent of the Scottish pipe the Tsampouna or Askos as it was called in the ancient Greece, the taburas, flute (flogera), bouzouki, clarinets, santouris and all kind of instruments that are used in the Greek traditional music.

Metro collections

The biggest excavation ever in Greece was dug at the time of the construction of the metropolitan railway of Athens (1993-2000). Some of the approximately 50,000 finds that were uncovered in these excavations are exhibited in specially designed spaces in the metro stops Panepistimio, Syntagma, Akropoli and Evangelismos.

Hellenic Motor Museum

Hellenic Motor Museum occupies 3 floors in Capitol Mall and is located in downtown Athens.The visitor can admire masterpieces of the automotive industry, experience the driving speed of F1 in the F1 simulator, and drive through and old car workshop with all its features.