---
node: spot_athens_acropolis_museum
type: spot
slug: acropolis_museum
destination: dest_athens
title: "Acropolis Museum"
lead: "The Acropolis Museum opened in 2009 at the foot of the rock, built over an excavated Athenian neighbourhood visible through glass floors. Its top gallery is the exact size and orientation of the Parthenon, with the frieze arranged as it stood."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_athens_acropolis_museum.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Athens_Acropolis_Museum_excavation_01.jpg"
image_author: "Ad Meskens"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

Bernard Tschumi's building was designed to answer the argument that Greece had nowhere to display the sculptures held in London — the Parthenon Gallery shows the surviving originals interleaved with plaster casts of the pieces in the British Museum, and the difference in colour makes the case without a word of text. Lower floors hold archaic korai, the Moschophoros and the caryatids from the Erechtheion.

## Highlights

The Parthenon Gallery is the whole point; go up first and come down. The glass floor over the excavation at the entrance is worth ten minutes on its own. The café terrace on level 2 looks straight at the Acropolis and is open to anyone with a ticket.