Though everyone comes to Athens for the Parthenon (guilty!), there are a significant number of museums scattered around the city that provide a closer look at the city’s and the nation’s culture and history. We’re on a budget, so we barely made a dent in Athens’ extensive list (skipping the art museums and additional archeology museums). But these are the ones we checked out, and I wholeheartedly recommend them all!
pana po’o (v) {Hawaiian}: scratching your head in an attempt to remember something you’ve forgotten
In this post:
- Acropolis Museum
- Benaki Museum of Greek Culture
- *Byzantine and Christian Museum
- Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments
- The Benizelos Mansion
- National Historical Museum
- Top Tips
Acropolis Museum
Athens’ Acropolis Museum is relatively new, completed in 2009, and sits just 300 meters from the Acropolis itself. The museum is very well-curated and exhibits the history and architecture of the Acropolis in a very easy-to-understand way.
Ground Floor: The Gallery of the Acropolis Slopes – contains finds (ceramics, glass, metal figures) from the Acropolis slopes
1st Floor (Eastern & Southern): Archaic Acropolis Gallery – details the history of the acropolis from 700-480 BC, and numerous statuary offerings are on display, notably the “Calf-bearer”
1st Floor (West): Other Monuments of the Periklean Building Program – displays architectural pieces from the Propylaea, the temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechtheion and its Caryatids
1st Floor (North): 5th Century BC to the End of Antiquity – this is the “classical” history of the Acropolis and discusses the newest finds as well as Roman influence; I thought the Magic Sphere was particularly interesting
3rd Floor: Parthenon Gallery – at the top of the museum, a glass-walled chamber wraps a rectangular core whose orientation and dimensions match the Parthenon’s original cella; the outer walls display the relief-carved blocks of the temple’s frieze, mounted in the same position as they were on the monument, and the steel columns of the hall number the same as the Parthenon’s columns
Archeological Excavation – underneath the museum is an ancient Athens neighborhood, with constructions ranging from the 4th millennium BC to the 12th century AD; raids, houses, baths, workshops, and tombs can be viewed
Tim and I spent at least two hours in the museum and were both tired of looking at Greek art by the time we left. 😅 However, visiting the museum before heading up the hill to the Acropolis made that experience more poignant since we were now armed with some prior knowledge of its construction, importance, and conservation.
What is also interesting about visiting the Acropolis Museum is the story it tells of modern Greece’s relationship with the monument. Many pieces in the museum are reconstructions or simply “empty” spaces where it’s obvious a piece should go. At the beginning of the 19th century, Britain’s ambassador to Constantinople secured authorization from the Ottoman Sultan, who then controlled Athens, to investigate the Acropolis. Though not part of this agreement, the Englishman removed a large number of sculptures from the Parthenon, one of the Caryatids, four frieze blocks from the Temple of Athena Nike, and other antiquities, which he shipped to Britain. Greece is still trying to get these back.
Benaki Museum of Greek Culture
The Museum of Greek Culture, housed in a neoclassical-style building, is part archeology museum, part ethnographic museum. The house was converted into a museum to preserve the collections of Antonis Benakis and donated to the state by him and his three sisters. Though small, the museum provides a strong and comprehensive overview of Greece’s artistic and cultural history and is well worth a visit. I enjoyed it a lot more than a traditional archeological museum because it examines the culture that produced the art and not just the art itself.
The museum features prehistoric, Ancient Greek, and Roman artwork, including sculpture, pottery, glass, and jewelry. There’s actually a lot of jewelry here, and it’s impressive, delicate, and beautiful. I don’t wear much jewelry, but I wanted to wear these gold ornaments! On display is also a number of Byzantine artworks, namely icons but also household wares and religious manuscripts.
And the ethnographic exhibits focus on the history of modern Greece from the end of the 18th century onward. Like in Croatia, Tim and I were drawn to the traditional clothing, debating what we would and would not prefer to wear. I found the old maps particularly fascinating – it’s interesting to see how people in past times viewed the world. And there were a couple of rooms in Ottoman style because they controlled Athens at one point, too.
*Byzantine and Christian Museum
Right next to Aristotle’s Lyceum, this museum portrays the history of the Byzantine Empire in an engaging, easy-to-understand, and beautiful way. The museum traces the rise of Christianity, the development of the Empire to its height, and then its decline. This narrative is accompanied by a series of artifacts – artwork, home goods, manuscripts, and Byzantine frescoes. Tim pronounced it one of the best museums he’s ever been to, and we’ve been to a lot! My list of Greek saints grew exponentially here, too, so stay tuned for those bios.
Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments
Located in one of the oldest serving buildings in Plaka (an Athens neighborhood), this museum contains a collection of 1200 musical instruments and sound-emitting objects. The collection previously belonged to Fivos Anoyanakis, a musicologist and researcher of Greek traditional music. The museum is small (reflected by its €3 ticket), but the presentation of Greek instruments is comprehensive; however, it lacks ethnographical information that goes beyond the use of the instruments, especially concerning folk traditions and celebrations – I wanted to know more about the celebrations themselves.
What I found most interesting here was the display of the bells. Though originally tied to animals or placed in sanctuaries to ward off evil spirits, the bell became an important pastoral tool, used to indicate the location of a shepherd’s flock. Shepherds learned to harmonize the flock’s bells with their flutes, which I think is super cool!
The Benizelos Mansion
Constructed in the first half of the 18th century, this house is the oldest in Athens and the last surviving konaki (an Ottoman-style home). The two-story home has a stone-built ground floor and a timber upper floor as well as two courtyards. Most of the upper floor is an enclosed balcony (walled on three sides with the fourth exposed), making the whole living space very bright and airy.
This home is believed to be the residence of Saint Philothei, whom I’ll definitely write about later – but for now, she was prominent in the field of social work, especially for her time. More assuredly, however, it was the home of the Benizelos family (Philothei’s ancestors), who was among Athens’ oldest, richest, and most powerful noble families during Ottoman rule.
National Historical Museum
Athens’ National Historical Museum leaves Ancient Greek history behind and focuses on the nation’s more modern history: the fall of the Byzantine Empire followed by the occupation of the Ottomans, the revolution for independence in 1821, the establishment of a “Greek” monarchy (King Otto, a Bavarian prince, and George I, a Danish prince), and the nation’s involvement in WWI. The museum also discusses the formation of the Greek National Identity, especially regarding religion. Presumably, the exhibits upstairs were about Greece in WWII, but the museum closed before we could continue our historical journey.
Our visit to this museum revealed an important piece of history we had missed during our time in Turkey. We knew that the Greeks and the Turks had some strong animosity between them, something some expressed violently and ultimately ending in a population exchange. This was not due only to religion, with the Christians on one side and the Muslims on the other, but due to land claims. Turkey, at its independence, was looking at land, a united nation within its borders (yes, there may have been some view toward ethnic cleansing as well), but Greece was looking at language and religion rather than proximity for its claim on what places constituted Greece. Therefore, some places that Greece claimed as Greece were within what is now officially Turkey, namely İstanbul (Constantinople as the seat of the Orthodox Church), Thrace, and Smyrna (İzmir). And that is the history we missed.
We lived in İzmir for 2.5 months and heard nothing of this whisper of a terrible past. In the early 20th century, Smyrna was wealthy due to international trade and its status as an “island” of European lifestyle in the East since it was dominated by a Greek population. For this reason, the Ottomans called it Giaur Ismir, meaning “infidel Smyrna.” The Greeks lived in the commercial center of the city where the banks, shops, printing presses, and clubs were located; they participated in trade and shipping, were employed as lawyers and doctors, and founded schools, hospitals, and orphanages.
For these reasons, Greece wanted to fight to include Smyrna as part of its own nation, rather than leaving it to the Turks. The Greeks took their last stand in Turkey here, evacuating as many as they could as the Turks overcame their military. The Turks, on their side, destroyed the city in fire and pillage and its people in rape and murder. These people fought under Atatürk’s name. No wonder İzmir hides this history; it shames their people and their idolized national father. There is no İzmir History Museum because you cannot tell the city’s history without admitting this.
Top Tips
- *Tickets for the Byzantine and Christian Museum can be purchased individually or as a combo ticket that includes the National Archaeological Museum, Epigraphic Museum, and Numismatic Museum.
- In Athens, many museums run on two schedules: a winter season and a summer season. So be sure to verify opening and closing times before your visit.
- Some museums offer Free Admission Days. We visited the Acropolis Museum and the Greek Culture for free on May 18, the International Day of Museums, saving us €27/person! The National Historical Museum is free on Sundays. Check the museums’ websites for other deals.
- Tickets for the Acropolis Museum can be booked in advance online. This may be invaluable during the summer months, as it allows you to skip the ticket line.
- The Benizelos Mansion is free to visit (donations are encouraged), and it makes for a quick and interesting stop as you’re browsing for souvenirs. Know before you go: opening days and hours are limited, so be sure to check their website.
Museums walking miles: 19.7 miles
Mile count so far: 1522.8 miles
Next stop: Aegina
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