Old Acropolis Museum

The Acropolis Museum
Μουσείο Ακρόπολης

Established	1865
Dissolved	2007
Location	Athens, Greece
Type	Archaeological
Website	No official website

The Old Acropolis Museum (Greek: (Παλαιό) Μουσείο Ακρόπολης (Palaio) Mouseio Akropolis) 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 20 June 2009.^[1]

History

View of the building used from the 1950s until 2007 on the Acropolis.

The museum was home to many of the Greek world's ancient relics found in and around the Acropolis of Athens since excavations started. It was designed by architect Panagis Kalkos 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.^[2]

The Acropolis Museum housed stone sculptures and bronze remains^[3] 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 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

Main article: New Acropolis Museum

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 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 which is threatening to collapse the Parthenon.^[4]

Collections

Perserschutt, Acropolis of Athens, 1866

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.^[5]

Highlights

The Blond Kouros Head

Notes

↑ New Acropolis Museum
↑ The Acropolis Museum: A Descriptive Catalogue Brouskari M.S.(1974) Commercial Bank of Greece
↑ The Bronze Fragments of the Acropolis Bather A.G. The Journal of Hellenic Studies (13), 1892 - 1893, pp. 124-130
↑ Greek Tragedy: Acropolis Is 'Decaying'
↑ Hellenic Ministry of Culture | Acropolis of Athens

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Coordinates: 37°58′16″N 23°43′41″E / 37.971°N 23.728°E / 37.971; 23.728

Museums in Athens

Archaeological	Acropolis Museum Epigraphical Museum Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art Kerameikos Kanellopoulou Museum National Archaeological Museum Stoa of Attalos Old Acropolis Museum Syntagma Metro Station Archaeological Collection Museum of the Center for the Acropolis Studies Athens International Airport Archaeological Collection

Byzantine and ecclesiastic	Byzantine & Christian Museum

Ethnological/historical	Athens War Museum Drossinis Museum Eleftherios Venizelos Historical Museum Goulandris Natural History Museum Jewish Museum of Greece Museum of the City of Athens National Historical Museum

Folklore	Museum of Greek Folk Art Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments Centre for the Study of Traditional Pottery Museum of the History of the Greek Costume

Art museums/galleries	Benaki Museum Emphietsoglou Gallery Museum Frissiras Museum Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum Municipal Gallery of Athens National Gallery (Athens) National Glyptotheque National Museum of Contemporary Art

Industry/technology	Evgenidio Foundation Hellenic Air Force Museum Hellenic Motor Museum Railway Museum of Athens Electric Railways Museum Technopolis (Gazi)

Education/sports/Special Interests	Athens University Museum Hellenic Children's Museum Hellenic Cosmos Numismatic Museum of Athens Theatrical Museum of Greece Postal & Philatelic Museum of Greece

Museum ships	Georgios Averof VELOS D16 SS Hellas Liberty Olympias HS "Eugenios Eugenides" Evangelistria Cable-laying ship "Thales of Miletus"

List of museums in Greece

Acropolis of Athens

Extant structures	Parthenon Erechtheion Propylaea Temple of Athena Nike Odeon of Herodes Atticus Stoa of Eumenes Sanctuary of Asclepius Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus Aglaureion

Former structures	Pelasgic wall Hekatompedon temple Older Parthenon Old Temple of Athena Perserschutt Statue of Athena Promachos Statue of Athena Parthenos Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia Chalkotheke Pandroseion Arrephorion Altar of Athena Eleusinion Nike of Callimachus Sanctuary of Pandion Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus Odeon of Pericles Frankish Tower

People	Pericles Phidias Ictinus and Callicrates Mnesikles Lord Elgin

Museums	Acropolis Museum Old Acropolis Museum Museum of the Center for the Acropolis Studies Elgin Marbles at the British Museum

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