Athens' Hidden Treasures
Museums in Athens

The long history of Athens is the envy of many other capital towns in the world. Not only is this long and eventful history reflected in the archaeological sites all over the centre of the city but you will also find it in the high quality collections of the many museums in Athens.

The 2004 Olympic Games spurred both public and private institutions to make imaginative and opportune changes (renovations and extension) and those who set out to discover their collections in and after the summer of 2004, now find themselves in front of a landscape that has been literally transformed.

Renovated or not, however, the museums in Athens house an inestimable treasure, which covers the entire history and all aspects of the Athenian civilization that flourished. The museums in Athens have always had countless treasures to display but they now do this in an attractive way to today’s visitors. Many museums have temporary exhibitions for their visitors. This is particularly true with the private ones which know how to attract public with “museum packages”.

The time that museums in Athens only had something interesting to offer to highly educated or hard core museum visitors, now also has become part of its past. The collections are displayed in a modern way. A chronological order, easy to understand information panels and subtle lighting, make visiting a museum in Athens an enjoyable family event. Often special attention is paid with regards to children in displaying collections.

Social Bookmarking

The general rule in museums belonging to the Ministry of Culture (National Archaeological Museum, Acropolis Museum, Archaeological Museum of Piraeus, Byzantine and Christian Museum, Epigraphic Museum, Kanellopoulos Museum, Numismatic Museum, Ancient Agora Museum, Kerameikos Museum) is that you can take photos as long as you don’t use a flash or a tripod and you don’t pose in front of the exhibits. In other museums you must have permission to take photos.

In public museums there are certain days when admission is free for all visitors:

• every Sunday from 1 November to 31 March
• the first Sunday of April, May, June and October or the second if the first happens to
  be a holiday
• 6 March – Melina Mercouri Day
• 18 April – World Monument Day
• 5 June – World Environment Day

There is a more than sufficient choice in museums in the town of Athena. All depends on what you are interested in. You can look-up a museum in the navigation bar on the left or in the alphabetical selection list below. In these pages, Athens Info Guide introduces you to the city’s most important museums. As almost all have air-conditioning, museums are great to visit when it is really warm outside. Of course, no one will prevent you from enjoying a good frappé in the shade of old trees on a little square in Psirri, Monastiraki or Plaka....