Old Acropolis Museum

The Old Acropolis Museum was an archaeological museum located in Athens, Greece on the archeological site of Acropolis. It is built in a niche at the eastern edge of the rock and most of it lies beneath the level of the hilltop, making it largely invisible. It was considered one of the major archaeological museums in Athens. Due to its limited size, the Greek Government decided in the late 1980s to build a new museum. The New Acropolis Museum is now built at the foot of the Acropolis. In June 2007 the old museum closed its doors so that its antiquities could be moved to their new home, which opened on 20th June 2009.

History

The museum was home to many of the Greek world's ancient relics found in and around the Acropolis site since excavations started. It was designed by architect Panages Kalkos and was constructed between 1865 and 1874. It was expanded in the 1950s to a modern design executed by Patroklos Karantinos, a renowned Greek modernist architect. The Acropolis Museum housed stone sculptures and bronze remains from the monuments of the Acropolis and some artifacts that are excavated on the site. The building is located in the south-east corner of the Acropolis. In 1974 prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis proposed the construction of a new museum. Initial plans were made under Melina Mercouri and the ground of the Makrygianni former military hospital and Gendarmerie barracks was chosen. The first competition was critisized and a new competition proclaimed some years later. In 2007 the old building was closed to prepare the move to the new building.

The new building

A new building was designed by Bernard Tschumi and Michali Fotiades, and constructed from 2002-2007 on Areopagitou Street. It was inaugurated on Saturday, June 20, 2009, and the entrance fee will be 1 euro for the first year, and 5 euros thereafter.

Collections

The museum housed artifacts that were found on the site of the Acropolis of Athens. They derive mainly from the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheum, the Temple of Athena Nike, the Eleusinion, the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia, the Chalkotheke, the Pandroseion, the Old Temple of Athena, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the sanctuary of Asclepius or Asclepieion, the Temple and Theatre of Dionysus Eleutheureus, and the Odeon of Pericles.

Highlights

Parthenon Frieze
Kritios Boy
Caryatids
Blond Kouros's Head of the Acropolis
Moscophoros
Kouros and Kore
Nike Adjusting Her Sandal
Temple of Athena Nike frieze
Metopes of the Parthenon

Translation of "Old Acropolis Museum"

Bulgarian: Музей на Акропола, German: Akropolismuseum, Spanish: Museo de la Acrópolis, French: Musée de l'Acropole d'Athènes, Italian: Museo dell'acropoli di Atene, Dutch: Acropolis Museum, Norwegian (Bokmål): Akropolismuseet, Portuguese: Museu da Acrópole de Atenas, Serbian: Акропољски музеј, Serbo-Croatian: Akropoljski muzej, Swedish: Akropolismuseet.