The Acropolis Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated entirely to one archaeological site. Everything in it — more than four thousand objects — was found on the Acropolis rock or on the slopes below it, and almost all of it is shown within sight of where it once stood. The museum is in the centre of Athens.
The building opened in 2009. It was designed by Bernard Tschumi with the Greek architect Michael Photiadis, and it was meant to be ready for the 2004 Olympics. But when they dug the foundations, they found a whole Athenian neighbourhood from the fifth century AD underneath. The design was changed so that the museum stands on pillars above it. The excavation is still there: you walk over it on glass floors, and you can also visit it below the museum.
How the building works
The three main levels match the three zones of the Acropolis.
The ground floor holds finds from the slopes, in a long hall with a sloping floor that imitates the climb up the rock.
Above it, the Archaic Gallery is an open space full of sixth-century statues, lit from every side. You are meant to walk around them rather than past them. The Erechtheion room holds five of the six original Caryatids.
The Parthenon Gallery
The top floor is the point of the whole building.
It is turned twenty-three degrees away from the rest of the structure, so that it sits at exactly the same orientation as the temple. It has the same dimensions as the temple. It is enclosed in glass, so the sculptures are lit by the same daylight — and the Parthenon itself is visible through the windows. The frieze runs in one continuous line around a rectangular core, at eye level.
The gallery is also visibly incomplete. About half of the surviving Parthenon sculptures are in the British Museum in London. Their places here are filled with plaster copies, left deliberately pale so that they stand out against the original marble. The sixth Caryatid is in London too.
Talks between Athens and the British Museum have gone on for years without a result. The gaps in the gallery are part of how the museum makes its argument.
Photo Gallery
Where to Stay
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Practical information
Getting there
The museum is on Dionysiou Areopagitou street, about 300 metres from the south entrance of the Acropolis. The Acropoli metro station (Line 2, red) is directly outside. From Plaka or Monastiraki it is a ten to fifteen minute walk along the pedestrian avenue that runs below the rock.
Tickets and hours
The museum ticket is separate from the ticket for the Acropolis site, and there is no combined ticket — you buy each one on its own. Admission costs more in summer than in winter. There are reduced prices for students and people over 65, and free entry for EU citizens under 25. Opening hours change with the season, and the museum stays open late on some evenings. Book online and check the current times before you go.
How to visit
Allow one and a half to two hours. The building is designed to be walked upwards: the slopes gallery first, then the Archaic Gallery, then the Parthenon Gallery at the top. You see the Roman and Byzantine material on the way back down, so the chronology stays in order. Visiting the museum after the Acropolis helps you understand both. Visiting it before gives you a map of what you are about to climb.
Good to know
The excavated neighbourhood beneath the building is included in your ticket and is worth the extra time. The restaurant on the second floor has a terrace facing the Acropolis, and you can use it without a museum ticket. Glass floors run through much of the building. The last two hours of the day are the quietest, and the light in the Parthenon Gallery is best late in the day.
Acropolis Museum— been there?Tell others what you saw.
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