Museums
Museums and galleries abound in Kolonaki. The new National Gallery will be opening soon as a distinguished neighbour, and both the Benaki Museum and the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, which house two of the finest private collections in Greece, are within walking distance.
Acropolis Museum is the top museum of the country, focused on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every artifact found on the rock as well as on the surrounding slopes, from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. It also lies over the ruins of Roman and early Byzantine Athens. The museum was founded in 2003, while its organization was established in 2008.
Benaki Museum, established and endowed in 1930, is housed in the Benakis family mansion in downtown Athens, Greece and is dedicated to Greek works of art dated from the prehistorical to the modern times. In addition, the museum hosts an extensive collection of Asian art while it also maintains a state-of-the-art restoration and conservation workshop that focuses on Greek culture over the span of the country’s history.
Museum of Cycladic Art hosts a notable collection of Cycladic artifacts.The museum was founded in 1986 in order to house the collection of Cycladic and Ancient Greek art belonging to Nicholas and Dolly Goulandris. Starting in the early 1960s the couple collected Greek antiquities, with a special interest in the prehistoric art from the Cyclades islands of the Aegean Sea.
The National Museum of Contemporary Art, established in 2000, is the sole national institution exclusively focused on collecting and exhibiting contemporary Greek and international art in Athens.
The National Archaeological Museum houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece, dated back to prehistory until the late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world and contains the richest collection of artifacts from Greek antiquity worldwide.
Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art is a modern art museum, founded in late in 2019. It displays many of the works amassed by shipowner Basil Goulandris, who died in 1994, and his wife Elise Karadontis. The museum is located in a 1920s neoclassical mansion that was restored with a ten-storey extension.
The Jewish Museum of Greece was established by Nicholas Stavroulakis in 1977 to honor and preserve the history and culture of Greek Jews.
The Byzantine and Christian Museum was founded in 1914, and houses more than 25.000 exhibits including rare collections of pictures, scriptures, frescoes, pottery, fabrics, manuscripts, and copies of artifacts from the 3rd century AD to the Late Middle Ages. It is one of the most important museums in the world about Byzantine Art.
Athens War Museum, established in 1975, is the museum of the Greek Armed Forces. Today its purpose is both exhibiting weapon artifacts as well as researching the history of war across all eras. Apart from the Greek Army collection you can also see artifacts from other civilizations such as Ancient China or Ancient Japan.
The Currency Museum in Athens is one of the most important museums of Greece and houses one of the greatest collections of coins, ancient and modern, in the world.
The National Art Gallery is an art museum located on Vasilissis Sofias avenue in the Pangrati district. It is devoted to Greek and European art from the 14th century to the 20th century. It is directed by Marina Lambraki-Plaka.
