Acropolis Museum

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ

Administrative Information     

Official Unit:
Acropolis Museum

15 Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, Τ.Κ. 11742, Athens (Prefecture of Attiki)

Telephone: 210 9000900
Email: info@theacropolismuseum.gr

Entrance
Public entrance at Dionysiou Areopagitou Street.
Entrance for groups at Mitseon Street.

Tour Buses
A bus drop off point for groups is available at Hatzichristou Street and entrance for groups is at Mitseon Street.

History

The monuments of the Acropolis have withstood the ravages of past centuries, both of ancient times and those of the Middle Ages. Until the 17th century, foreign travellers visiting the monuments depicted the classical buildings as being intact. This remained the case until the middle of the same century, when the Propylaia was blown up while being used as a gunpowder store. Thirty years later, the Ottoman occupiers dismantled the neighbouring Temple of Athena Nike to use its materials to strengthen the fortification of the Acropolis. The most fatal year, however, for the Acropolis, was 1687, when many of the building’s architectural members were blown into the air and fell in heaps around the Hill of the Acropolis, caused by a bomb from the Venetian forces. Foreign visitors to the Acropolis would search through the rubble and take fragments of the fallen sculptures as their souvenirs. It was in the 19th century that Lord Elgin removed intact architectural sculptures from the frieze, the metopes and the pediments of the building.

In 1833, the Turkish garrison withdrew from the Acropolis. Immediately after the founding of the Greek State, discussions about the construction of an Acropolis Museum on the Hill of the Acropolis began. In 1863, it was decided that the Museum be constructed on a site to the southeast of the Parthenon and foundations were laid on 30 December 1865.

The building program for the Museum had provided that its height not surpasses the height of the stylobate of the Parthenon. With only 800 square meters of floor space, the building was rapidly shown to be inadequate to accommodate the findings from the large excavations on the Acropolis that began in 1886. A second museum was announced in 1888, the so-called Little Museum. Final changes occurred in 1946-1947 with the second Museum being demolished and the original being sizably extended.

By the 1970s, the Museum could not cope satisfactorily with the large numbers of visitors passing through its doors. The inadequacy of the space frequently caused problems and downgraded the sense that the exhibition of the masterpieces from the Rock sought to achieve.

The Acropolis Museum was firstly conceived by Constantinos Karamanlis in September 1976. He also selected the site, upon which the Museum was finally built, decades later. With his penetrating vision, C. Karamanlis defined the need and established the means for a new Museum equipped with all technical facilities for the conservation of the invaluable Greek artifacts, where eventually the Parthenon sculptures will be reunited.

For these reasons, architectural competitions were conducted in 1976 and 1979, but without success. In 1989, Melina Mercouri, who as Minister of Culture inextricably identified her policies with the claim for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum, initiated an international architectural competition. The results of this competition were annulled following the discovery of a large urban settlement on the Makriyianni site dating from Archaic to Early Christian Athens. This discovery now needed to be integrated into the New Museum that was to be built on this site.

In the year 2000, the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum announced an invitation to a new tender, which was realized in accord with the Directives of the European Union. It is this Tender that has come to fruition with the awarding of the design tender to Bernard Tschumi with Michael Photiadis and their associates and the completion of construction in 2007.

Today, the new Acropolis Museum has a total area of 25,000 square meters, with exhibition space of over 14,000 square meters, ten times more than that of the old museum on the Hill of the Acropolis. The new Museum offers all the amenities expected in an international museum of the 21st century.

Group visits
Group bookings (from 15 to 50 visitors) can be organized via telephone on +30 210 9000903, from Monday to Friday, 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Groups without a reservation risk being unable to enter the Museum.
School visits
School group reservations can be organized via telephone on +30 210 9000903. The Museum also offers several education options for children and educators.
Archaeologist-Hosts
Archaeologist-Hosts are available to answer your questions about Museum exhibits every day between 9.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. You can find them by looking for staff wearing large red and white ‘archaeologist’ badges in the Museum exhibition areas.
Accessibility for visitors with disabilities
All public areas of the Museum are wheelchair accessible. Wheelchairs are available free of charge at the Museum entrance.
Animals
Animals are not allowed inside the Museum. Guide and assistance dogs are welcome.
Baggage Control
Upon arrival at the Museum, visitors go through an X-Ray baggage control system. To avoid delays, visitors are asked to avoid carrying large bags and luggage into the Museum.
Cloakroom
The cloakroom is located on the ground floor of the Museum, where all backpacks and packages must be deposited. To avoid lengthy delays in queues, such items should not be brought into the Museum. The Museum holds no responsibility for valuables or fragile items deposited in the cloakroom.
Parent’s Room
The Museum provides a baby changing facility at the north side of the first floor gallery. Baby strollers are available free of charge in the cloakroom.
Reading Lounge
The Museum offers a reading lounge on the second floor with views of the Caryatids and the Hekatompedos Pediment where visitors can relax on comfortable chairs and browse through books on the Acropolis and the classical world.
Information Desk
The Information Desk is located on the ground floor of the Museum, at the Ticket Desk, from 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.
Short Guide
The Short Guide is available for purchase in the Museum Shops in 5 languages (Greek, English, French, German and Spanish). The Guide is also available in Braille (Greek and English) on loan at the Museum's Information Desk.  
Mobile Phones
The use of mobile phones is only permitted in the Museum Lobby, Restaurant and Cafe areas.
Photography
Photographs are permitted in all Museum exhibition areas, except for the Gallery of the Slopes of the Acropolis and the Archaic Gallery. No use of flash or any portable equipment such as tripod and lighting kit is allowed inside the Museum. Finally, publishing photos in any print or electronic media is not permitted.
Cafe & Restaurant
The Museum provides a Cafe on the ground floor level, overlooking the archaeological excavation and a Restaurant on the second floor, with panoramic views of the Acropolis (8.00 a.m. - 8.00 p.m.). The Museum provides free wifi internet access for its patrons. For information on access to the second floor Museum Restaurant and Shop, please go to the Ticket Desk.
Shops
The Acropolis Museum hosts a Shop at th.e ground level, featuring a broad selection of postcards, paper goods and the Museum’s children’s gift range. The Museum’s second floor Shop offers a wide range of book titles on the Acropolis and related topics, as well as functional items and gifts.

Δημοσίευση by Ancient Hellas (Greece).