Acropolis Museum

What it is and what you see

The Acropolis Museum holds what was found on the rock and its slopes: about 4,250 pieces, from the Archaic to the Roman period. It was designed by the Swiss-American architect Bernard Tschumi and the Greek Michalis Fotiadis, and opened on 20 June 2009, 400 m on foot from the Acropolis.

The visit climbs floor by floor, as you climb the rock:

• Ground floor: as you enter you walk on glass floors that let you see a neighbourhood of ancient Athens, excavated when the museum was built and preserved in place. The excavation can also be visited from below, with the same hours as the museum.
• First floor: a gentle ramp takes you to the Archaic gallery, with the Moschophoros, the man carrying a calf, from around 570 BC, the painted korai and the oldest pediments. Beside them are the five original caryatids of the Erechtheion; the sixth is in the British Museum.
• Top floor: the Parthenon hall, glazed and oriented like the temple, with the frieze, the metopes and the pediments placed in the order they had. The pieces that are abroad appear as plaster copies, whiter, and the difference can be seen at a glance. Through the picture window you see the Parthenon on the other side.

Opening hours

In winter, from 1 November to 31 March, it opens Monday to Thursday from 9:00 to 17:00, on Friday from 9:00 to 22:00 and on Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 to 20:00. In summer, from 1 April to 31 October, on Monday it closes at 17:00, from Tuesday to Sunday at 20:00 and on Friday at 22:00. The last entry is half an hour before closing.

It closes on 1 January, Orthodox Easter Sunday, 1 May and 25 and 26 December, and opens with reduced hours on 24 and 31 December and on Orthodox Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Tickets and price

Admission costs €20 all year and is bought on the museum's official ticketing website or at the ticket office. Buying beforehand saves you the ticket-office queue in high season. There is free admission for everyone on 6 March, 25 March, 18 May and 28 October; on those days it fills up.

How to get there

It is at 15 Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, the pedestrian street at the south foot of the rock. Akropoli metro station, on line 2, comes out a few metres from the door. From Plaka you can walk there in ten minutes. There is no visitor parking.

How long and how to organise yourself

Allow about two hours: half for the ground floor and the excavation, an hour for the Archaic gallery and the caryatids and another half for the Parthenon hall. The museum has a café and a shop for a break.

A good order is to go up the Acropolis first thing and come down to the museum when the sun bites. Or the other way round in winter: the museum in the morning and the rock in the afternoon. On Friday it opens until 22:00, the evening with the fewest groups.

Accessibility and with children

It is an accessible building, with ramps, lifts and accessible toilets, and can be toured with a pushchair without problems. With small children it works well: the glass floor over the excavation hooks them, there is space and air conditioning, and the museum has educational programmes and a printed guide.

Sleeping nearby is easy: the Herodion Hotel is 100 m away, and the Athens Backpackers hostel is in the same Makrygianni district.