Municipal Gallery of Athens
The Municipal Gallery of Athens is situated on 51, Piraios Street
on Eleftherias (Koumoundourou) Square. This elegant neoclassical
building, built between 1872 and 1875, was designed by the architect
Panagiotis Kalkos. It has a clear symmetrical form and consists
of a central building and two transverse wings. At the front of
the building there is an arched vault and the wings are covered
by pediments.
The
building housed the city nursery until 1977. In 1982 it was renovated
in order to be used as the municipal gallery. Prior to this renovation,
the city nursery was also a foundling hospital and an institution
indicative of historical social attitudes towards unwanted children.
The
municipal collection, which is housed in the gallery, goes back
to 1923. The main part of this collection was acquired by the
Municipality of Athens in the years 1930-40 through purchases
from national and private galleries as well as donations. Today
the collection consists of about 2.500 works, mostly by 20th century
Greek artists such as
•
Georgios Iakovidis
• Konstantinos Parthenis
• Georgios Bouzianis
• Georgios Gounaropoulos
• Nikos Engonopoulos
• Giannis Moralis
• Spiros Papaloukas among others.
The
collection of the Municipal Gallery of Athens includes numerous
important engravings by Ioannis Kefallinos, Vasso Katraki and
Tassos. There also are sculptures by:
•
Dimitrios Philippotis
• Georgios Fitalis
• Georgios Bonanos
• Michalis Tompros
• Thanassis Apartis
Furthermore
there are architectural drawings of important neoclassical buildings
by Ernst Ziller and Theophilus Hansen. Due to the gallery’s
limited space, only a part of these collections is on permanent
display but there are also temporary exhibitions.
Opening hours and admission
51, Piraeos Street
Thisso - Monastiraki 
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