The Old Acropolis Museum ( el, (Παλαιό) Μουσείο Ακρόπολης ''(Palaio) Mouseio Akropolis'') was an archaeological museum located in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

on the archeological site of

Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

. 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 Greece is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the President of Greece is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government within a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the go ...

decided in the late 1980s to build a new museum. The

New Acropolis Museum The Acropolis Museum ( el, Μουσείο Ακρόπολης, ''Mouseio Akropolis'') is an archaeological museum focused on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every artifact found on ...

is now built at the foot of the

. In June 2007 the old museum closed its doors so that its antiquities could be moved to their new home, which opened on 20 June 2009.

History

The museum was home to many of the Greek world's ancient relics found in and around the

Acropolis of Athens The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. Th ...

since excavations started. It was designed by architect

Panagis Kalkos Panagis Kalkos ( el, Παναγής Κάλκος, 1818–1875) was one of the first Greek architects of the modern Greek state. Educated in Munich, he is a representative of a strict neoclassic style in architecture. He built some of the most char ...

and was constructed between 1865 and 1874. It was expanded in the 1950s to a modern design executed by Patroklos Karantinos, a Greek modernist architect. The Acropolis Museum housed stone

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

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 Maria Amalia "Melina" Mercouri (, 18 October 1920 – 6 March 1994) was a Greek actress, singer, activist, and politician. She came from a political family that was prominent over multiple generations. She received an Academy Award nomination a ...

and the ground of the Makrygianni former military hospital and

Gendarmerie Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...

barracks was chosen. The first competition was criticized 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 Bernard Tschumi (born 25 January 1944 in Lausanne, Switzerland) is an architect, writer, and educator, commonly associated with deconstructivism. Son of the well-known Swiss architect Jean Tschumi and a French mother, Tschumi is a dual French-S ...

and Michali Fotiades, and constructed from 2002 to 2007 on Areopagitou Street. It was inaugurated on Saturday, June 20, 2009, and the entrance fee was 1 euro for the first year, and 5 euros thereafter.

Damage to the Acropolis

Drainage pipes from the Old Acropolis Museum have been attributed for causing much of the decay of the Acropolis.

Collections

The museum housed artifacts that were found on the site of the

. They derive mainly from the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...

, the

Propylaea In ancient Greek architecture, a propylaea, propylea or propylaia (; Greek: προπύλαια) is a monumental gateway. They are seen as a partition, specifically for separating the secular and religious pieces of a city. The prototypical Gr ...

, the Erechtheum, the

Temple of Athena Nike A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose tem ...

, the

Eleusinion Eleusinion was a sanctuary in Athens, Greece, dedicated to Demeter and Kore (Persephone). The temple was built in the early 5th-century BC. It was located at the base of the Acropolis. Below it was a spring called ''Enneakrounos'' (Nine Jets). The ...

, the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia, the Chalkotheke, the

Pandroseion The Pandroseion (pronounced: panδrosion, Greek: Πανδρόσειον) was a sanctuary dedicated to Pandrosus, one of the daughters of Cecrops I, the first king of Attica Greece, located on the Acropolis of Athens. It occupied the space adjace ...

, the

Old Temple of Athena The Old Temple of Athena or the Archaios Neos ( Greek: Ἀρχαῖος Νεώς) was an archaic Greek limestone Doric temple on the Acropolis of Athens probably built in the second half of the sixth-century BCE, and which housed the xoanon of ...

, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the sanctuary of

Asclepius Asclepius (; grc-gre, Ἀσκληπιός ''Asklēpiós'' ; la, Aesculapius) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis, or Arsinoe, or of Apollo alone. Asclepius represen ...

or Asclepieion, the Temple and Theatre of Dionysus Eleutheureus, and the Odeon of Pericles.Hellenic Ministry of Culture , Acropolis of Athens
/ref>

Highlights

* Parthenon Frieze *

Kritios Boy The marble ''Kritios Boy'' or ''Kritian Boy'' belongs to the Early Classical period of ancient Greek sculpture. It is the first statue from classical antiquity known to use contrapposto; Janson, H.W. (1995) ''History of Art''. 5th edn. Revised a ...

Caryatid A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "ma ...

s *

Blond Kouros's Head of the Acropolis __NOTOC__ The so-called Blond Kouros's Head of the Acropolis is the head of a lost marble statue of a young man (Kouros or Ephebe sculpture type) of ca 480 BC, in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, GreeceInv. 689. The head and part of the pelvis ...

* Moscophoros *

Kouros kouros ( grc, κοῦρος, , plural kouroi) is the modern term given to free-standing Ancient Greek sculptures that depict nude male youths. They first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and are prominent in Attica and Boeotia, with a les ...

and Kore * Nike Adjusting Her Sandal *

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

Metopes of the Parthenon The metopes of the Parthenon are the surviving set of what were originally 92 square carved plaques of Pentelic marble originally located above the columns of the Parthenon peristyle on the Acropolis of Athens. If they were made by several artis ...

Notes

External links

Acropolis museum

{{Acropolis of Athens

Museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

Archaeological museums in Athens Museums established in 1878 Defunct museums Ancient Greek culture Museums disestablished in 2007 2007 disestablishments in Greece 1878 establishments in Greece de:Akropolismuseum es:Museo de la Acrópolis fr:Musée de l'Acropole d'Athènes it:Museo dell'acropoli di Atene nl:Acropolis Museum no:Akropolismuseet pt:Museu da Acrópole de Atenas sr:Акропољски музеј sh:Akropoljski muzej sv:Akropolismuseet

History

The new building

Damage to the Acropolis

Collections

Highlights

See also

Notes

External links