Greece Athens ToursComing to Athens for leisure, visitors can see the archaeological sites of the city and the Greek art that Museums of Athens have. New museums were opened, such as the Basil& Elise Goulandris Foundation, Museum of Illusions, Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, and the fully renovated National Gallery. Here are the Museums that you must visit.
Acropolis Museum
The Acropolis Museum builded to house the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. It opened back in 2009, it is considered the best museum in Greece and in the top 10 in the world. A tour of the museum will allow the visitor the opportunity to meet the twelve gods of Olympus and highlight the statue of the Goddess Athena, the impressive-sized sculptures of the Battle of the Giants. The frieze with the Panathenaic procession had 360 figures of gods, and the heroes parade is impressive. They depict Panathenaic procession to the Acropolis and the offering of the veil to the stele of the Goddess. The five Caryatids (the sixth is in London), mark the Erechtheion, are prominent and cause emotion to the visitor.
Address: Dionysiou Areopagitou 15 www.theacropolismuseum.gr
Telephone: 210 9000900
Closest metro station: Acropolis
National Archaeological Museum
The National Archaeological Museum of Athens is the largest Museum in Greece and one of the most important museums in the world. His rich collections, numbering more than 11,000 exhibits, offer the visitor a comprehensive view of ancient Greek culture from prehistoric times to the Roman period.
Remarkable exhibits that you can admire are the sculpture “Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros,” “The Boxers” mural, made of fresco 2.75 meters high and 0.94 meters wide, the fresco of Spring, and the Antelopes that adorned walls of the prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri. There are exhibits, such as the Antikythera mechanism, the Antikythera teenager, a bronze statue 1.94 meters high of the Hellenistic period, which was raised from the wreck of Antikythera, Poseidon of Artemisio.
Address: 44 Patission Street www.namuseum.gr
Telephone: +30 213 214 4800
Closest metro station: Viktoria
Museum of Cycladic Art
The center of Athens is proud of one of the most important architectural examples of neoclassicism, designed by the brilliant architect Ernest Ziller. The Museum of Cycladic art has a collection of the ancient civilizations of Aegean and Cyprus. The permanent exhibitions, which have also given the name to the Museum, include one of the most critical series of artifacts of the popular Cycladic culture, which flourished in the islands of the central Aegean during the Early Bronze Age (3 BC). These include the famous Pisces figurines and vases, bronze weapons, tools as well as ceramic utensils.
Address:Neofitou Douka http://www.cycladic.gr
Telephone: 2107228321-3
Closest metro station: Evangelismos
Museum of Ancient Agora
The Museum of the Ancient Agora is housed in the restored building of Stoa Attalos, which dates back to the 2nd century B.C. and was a gift of the king of Pergamon Attalus II to the Athenians.
The Museum’s exhibition includes finds from the American School of Classical Studies excavations in the Ancient Agora dating from the Neolithic period to the post-Byzantine and Ottoman periods. All the collection is on the ground floor, and it’s organized in chronological and thematic sections and provides essential information about the private and public life of the ancient Athenians.
The oldest exhibits, pottery, figurines, weapons, and pottery shells, dating back to Neolithic times, the Early and Middle Bronze Age, the Mycenaean and Geometric eras come mainly from shallow wells and burials explored in the wider Agora.
Address: Stoa Attalos, inside the arch. site of Agora
Telephone: +30 210 3210185
Closest metro station: Thisseion
Benaki Museum
Antonis Benakis, a descendant of a historical family from Alexandria of Egypt, created with passion the oldest private museum in Greece in 1929. The main Benaki museum is housed in the neoclassical building of the Benaki family, built-in 1867-68, constantly enriched collections of artifacts. Today the collection exceeds 500,000 items, covering the full range of Greek art and culture, and works of Islamic, pre-Columbian, African and Chinese art.
Address: Koumbari 1& V. Sofias avenue, Athens https://www.benaki.org/
Telephone: 212 687 5275
Closest metro station: Syntagma
Byzantine Art Museum
The Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens is one of the most critical public museums in Greece. It was founded at the beginning of the 20th century (1914) to collect, study, preserve and exhibit the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine cultural heritage in the Greek territory. It is the Villa ‘Ilissia’, which builded in 1840-1848 as the house of the Duchess of Placentia.
The museum collection contains a significant number of artifacts (approximately 30,000) such as portable icons, sculptures, ceramics, church fabrics, paintings, crafts, and architectural elements (murals and mosaics).
The permanent collection of the museum is formed in two main parts: The first part is dedicated to the Byzantine period (from the 4th to the 15th century AD) and contains 1,200 exhibits and, the second part, entitled “From Byzantium to modern times” presents 1,500 exhibitions from the 15th to the 20th century.
Address:Vasilissis Sofias Avenue 22, Athens https://www.byzantinemuseum.gr/
Telephone: 2132139517
Closest metro station: Evangelismos
War Museum
Next to the Byzantine Museum is the War Museum of Athens, which houses one of the most important collections of weapons worldwide, from the Neolithic Age to the first half of the 20th century. It has 3,000 weapons, defensive and offensive. Particularly rare and valuable are the weapons-jewels of the Greek war of independence. Cannons of various eras are on display outside, as well as aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force.
Address: Rizari 2, Athens http://www.warmuseum.gr/
Telephone: 210 7252974
Closest metro station: Evangelismos
Numismatic Museum
Under the roof of a historical building that used to be the residence of famous archaeologist Heinrich SchleimanThe one that excavated Troy and Mycenae, bearing the architectural seal of Ernest Zille, the Ilios Melathron, which means “Palace of Troy”. Inside are reverently kept 500,000 exhibits, mainly coins dating back to the 14th century BC. until today. In front of the visitor passes an invaluable treasure of coins of modern and contemporary times from Greece and other countries.
Address: Panepistimiou 12 http://www.nummus.gr/
Telephone: 210-3632057
Closest metro station: Syntagma
National Historical Museum
The permanent exhibition of the National History Museum which is stored in the historical building of the old parliament, represents the course of Hellenism from the Fall of Constantinople (1453) to the Greek-Italian War of 1940-1941, through paintings and engravings, flags, and weapons from the national liberation struggles, personal items of historical figures, documents and photographs, household utensils and tools as well as traditional costumes and works of modern Greek handicrafts. At the entrance of the Museum, there are weapons of the Greek Revolution and busts of 19th-century kings and politicians.
Address: Stadiou 13 https://www.nhmuseum.gr/
Telephone: 210-3237617
Closest metro station: Syntagma
Basil& Elise Goulandris Foundation
Did you know that you can find Picasso, Monet, El Greco, Kandinsky, Degas, Chagall, Matisse, Bacon, Pollock, Miro, Warhol Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Joan Miró, Paul Klee, Fernand Lége? And the crème de la crème of the Greek masters, all these great artists are under the same roof! It sounds like a dream museum for every capital in the world. It certainly was for Athens, until October 2019 when the vast and magnificent collection of Basil and Elise Goulandris, who devoted their lives to collecting contemporary masterpieces, opened its doors to the public. This modern museum offers 11 floors of sheer visual pleasure close to downtown, just a 5-minute walk from the Panathenaic Stadium.
Address: Eratosthenous 13 https://goulandris.gr/en/
Telephone: 210 7252895
Closest metro station: Syntagma
Museum of Ancient Greek Technology
Outstanding and without a doubt unrivaled to this day is the contribution of the ancient Greeks to philosophy and fine arts. Likewise, regular is their contribution to the field of Science. However, the technology of the ancient Greeks is relatively unknown, just as is their incredible performance in this field. The present exhibition includes approximately 300 operating inventions. The ancient Greek technological marvel (from the robot – servant of Philon to the first cinema made again by Heron, and from the automatic clock of Ktesibios to the analog computer of Antikythera) covers 2000 BC until the Roman occupation. All were constructed by Mr. Kostas Kotsanas, through 22 years of extensive research and study.
The Museums aim to highlight this relatively unknown aspect of ancient Greek civilization and prove that ancient Greek technology, just before the end of the ancient Greek world, was shockingly similar to the beginning of our modern technology. The exhibits are accompanied by rich audio-visual material (in Greek and English), such as explanatory labels and giant posters with a lot of information, detailed diagrams, photos, and complete bibliographical references. In contrast, many of the exhibits are interactive. There are projecting stations with video and animation and documentaries in which the exhibitor explains the function and the use of the mechanisms.
Address: Pindarou 8 http://kotsanas.com/gb/index.php
Telephone: +30 6931831530
Closest metro station: Syntagma
Museum of Illusions
Museum of Illusions offers an interactive, immersive, and fun experience for children, parents, couples, grandmothers, and grandfathers – a perfect, unusual, and exciting place for all generations. Amusing and awesome tricks will teach you about vision, perception, the human brain, and science, so it will be easier to perceive why your eyes see things that your brain cannot understand.
Address: Ermou 119 https://museumofillusions.gr/athens/en/
Telephone: +30 2103639627
Closest metro station: Monastiraki
Hellenic Maritime Museum
The Museum is located at Freatida, near Zea Harbour, in Piraeus. Its halls exhibit more than 2,500 objects sorted chronologically and thematically, evoking the maritime history and tradition from prehistoric times to the present day. Its Naval Library is also open to the public during the days and hours of operation. It consists of more than 17,000 volumes of books and magazines focusing on naval history, science, and art. In its exterior space, sculptures and important outdoor exhibits are located, such as the conning tower of the historic submarine “Papanikolis’ and anchors of the ships of the time of the Battle of Navarino.
Address: Akti Themistokleous, Piraeus http://www.hmmuseum.gr/
Telephone: +30 210 4516264
Hellenic Motor Museum
The Museum opened in 2011 and is housed in the industrial design of the Capitol Mall, based on the standards of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The collection consists of 310 cars (collection of the Theodoros & Giannas Haragionis Foundation). Car enthusiasts can admire Maseratti, Bugatti, Facel, Lotus, Aston Martin, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant’s pink Chrysler Imperial, Sir Lawrence Olivier’s Rolls Royce, Formula 1 driver gear, and Cadillac Seville interior Specially designed by Gucci and many other luxury cars. The children will see the Flintstones car, which was found in the museum from the Hollywood studios.
Address: Ioulianou 33-35 http://www.hellenicmotormuseum.gr/en/
Telephone: +30 210-7279999
Closest metro station: Viktoria
Jewish Museum
The Jewish Museum of Greece is housed in a neoclassical building on Nikis Street, in Syntagma. His collection consists of 8,000 rare religious and household items and archives, exclusively from the historical course and tradition of the Greek Jews. Our permanent exhibition knows topics such as the synagogue and the cult utensils, the celebration, the traditional costumes, the Holocaust, the cycle of life etc.
Address: Nikis 39 https://www.jewishmuseum.gr/
Telephone: +30 210 32 25 582
Closest metro station: Syntagma
The National Gallery
National Gallery was founded on April 10, 1900, by a law that provided a chief curator of the Foundation. Today, the National Gallery collections comprise more than 20,000 works of painting, sculpture, engraving, and other forms of art; this is the treasury of Modern Greek art, encompassing the period from the post-Byzantine times until today. Moreover, the National Gallery owns a remarkable collection of Western European paintings. The building is fully renovated with much more spaces and opened during the celebrations of 200 years from the war of independence,1821-2021.
Address: Vasileos Konstantinou 50. https://www.nationalgallery.gr/en/
Telephone: +30 210 72 35 937
Closest metro station: Evangelismos
