When you arrive in Athens, no matter what time of year, there’s no better way to explore the city’s rich history than by visiting the many impressive museums. Whether it’s a museum of the arts or culture, one of ancient history or science, or a world-famous archaeological site, all of the museums have something to offer everyone. However, there are so many best museums to visit in Athens, that some people can’t keep track of everything available. Which museum should you visit? Will it be the Benaki Museum or will it be the Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art? If you are a museum lover then here are the most top-rated museums in Athens that you won’t want to miss out!

The Acropolis Museum has been open since June 2009, and its popularity is growing. It is a place you have heard and read so much about, but almost nothing can prepare you for its magnificence. What makes this museum special is its novel structure: a fusion of modern architecture and ancient artifacts, displayed in a continuous, smooth way. Natural light shines through the museum’s glass walls, illuminating the exhibits and offering a unique experience. Into the architecture of the museum is incorporated an ancient Athenian neighborhood, whose ruins were discovered during the construction of the building. In several places, the glass floor allows viewing the excavations below. You may feel as if you have traveled to ancient Athens when witnessing these ancient artifacts.

The museum houses a fantastic thematic collection of artifacts discovered from around the Athenian Acropolis and covers thousands of years of history, from prehistoric times to the end of antiquity. It gives you a real feel for how old it all is and just how much history has happened there. The stars of the museum, according to the New York Times, are the restored Caryatid Statues. The Caryatids of the Erechtheion were the six sculptures, six female figures, that support the entablature of the temple on their heads. Today, the five of them are in the Acropolis Museum, and the missing Caryatid is part of the British Museum collection in London. You won’t be disappointed with your experience if you allow yourself enough time to explore it for as long as you can. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to enjoy lunch with a lofty view of the classic architecture of the Parthenon.

Visit the Acropolis Museum’s official website to check opening hours and tickets.

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is by far one of the most popular museums in Greece since it houses some of the finest ancient Greek artifacts. With over 11,000 ancient artifacts, and a couple of new exhibits to see every year, the National Archaeological Museum is an absolute “must-see” for travelers looking for a cultural experience or have a passion for history. The permanent exhibition tells the story of the Greek culture from prehistoric times to late antiquity. The museum’s prehistoric collection offers a fascinating journey into the dawn of civilization, from 7,000 BC to about 1050 BC. It includes unique art and artifacts related to the distinct civilizations that existed on the Aegean Sea. The permanent exhibitions include sculptures, pottery, and metalwork offering unique opportunities to appreciate the gradual development of art.

On the visit to the National Archaeological Museum pay attention to the famous Cycladic marble figurines, the excellently preserved frescoes (wall paintings) of Akrotiri in Thera, the treasures of the royal tombs of Mycenae (including the mask of Agamemnon), and the Linear B tablets. Do not miss the priceless bronze statue of Poseidon or the sculpture of Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros. Be sure to check out the first analog computer, the Antikythera mechanism. It is an orrery from the 2nd century BC that can predict astronomical positions, eclipses, and seasons for calendar and astrology applications. The mechanism was recovered in 1900 from a shipwreck near the island of Antikythera, between Crete and mainland Greece.

To check opening hours and tickets, visit the official website of the museum

The Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art should definitely be on your list of places to see when you visit Athens. One of the world’s most prized private art collections, the collection of Basil and Elise Goulandris, is now housed in a brand new museum in Athens. The museum opened at the beginning of October 2019, and people were so excited about it that tickets stayed sold out for months. The collection is impressive and contains a good number of works from paintings, sculptures, drawings, and objects of modern and contemporary art.

The museum exhibits works by leading painters and sculptors of the 19th and 20th centuries. On display, there are works of prominent artists including Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Auguste Rodin, Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, and others. The Greek section of the collection is an insight into Greek Modern Art, as it showcases works by well-known modern Greek painters including Parthenis, Bouzianis, Vasileiou, Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, Tsarouchis, Moralis, Tetsis.

To check opening hours and tickets, visit the official website of the museum

The Museum of Cycladic Art, while small, is a gem in Athens’ cultural scene offering an enchanting experience to the visitors. The permanent collections of the Museum offer a rare view into the cultures that thrived in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean from the 4th century BC to the 6th century AD. Visitors can learn more about ancient Greek Art, the Cycladic Art, and ancient Cypriot Art through these impressive collections of artifacts, pottery, and findings related to everyday life. The temporary exhibitions focus on presenting artworks from ancient to modern times and highlighting how the old blends with the new.

To check opening hours and tickets, visit the official website of the museum

The Benaki Museum is a network of museums showcasing different aspects of the greek culture from ancient through modern times. Among the most popular sites are, the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture, the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art, and the new Benaki Museum in Pireos 138.

For more information about the collections visit the official website.

The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture

The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture, founded in 1931, is at the heart of Athens, in the district known as Kolonaki, near the National Garden and the Hellenic Parliament. The museum features a collection of more than 6,000 items from different periods of Greek history. Its collection is a synthesis of the world of Greek culture and civilization from prehistoric times to the first decades of the twentieth century.

The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art

The museum of Islamic Art maintains an extensive collection of Islamic Art from the 8th century. Its collection, one of the most distinctive in Europe, includes local variations from India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Arabia, Egypt, North Africa, Sicily, and Spain.
The museum is housed in the neoclassical building complex near the ancient cemetery of Keramikos. In fact, during the preservation works conducted by the museum, a section of Athens’ ancient city wall and an ancient tomb were uncovered. The findings remained in situ and are accessible to visitors.

The new Benaki Museum in Pireos 138

The Benaki Museum in Pireos 138 presents two permanent collections that tell the story of modern Greek culture. One is the Photographic Archives, and it houses works by internationally known Greek and foreign photographers from the 19th century to today. The other is the Modern Greek Architecture Archives holds documents related to the architecture and urban design in Greece after 1830 onward. The building provides an innovative approach to the visitor experience. It emphasizes the quality of the presentation while providing spaces for a diverse range of complementary activities.

The Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens is a must-see if you have ever wondered about the artistic significance of the Byzantine era in the Greek cultural heritage. The 25000 artifacts exhibit the culture and the art of the Early Christian, Byzantine, Medieval, and post-Byzantine eras, from the 3rd up to 20th century. This museum also gives visitors a glimpse into the history of the early years of the greek state. The building, Villa Illisia, was the winter palace of the Duchess of Plaisance, a French-American philhellene who came to Greece in 1830 inspired by the Greek Revolution.

Check Byzantine and Christian Museum’s opening hours and tickets online.

The National Historical Museum is located in the building of the Old Parliament where the national delegation was housed for more the 60 years up to 1935. The permanent exhibition outlines the historical course of Greece from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the beginnings of the Second World War. Its collection especially brings to light the period of the Greek Revolution against the Ottoman rule and the establishment of the modern Greek state. Visitors can view works of art including paintings, sculptures, and engravings by Greek and foreign artists. Browse military memorabilia, flags, and weapons that were used during various wars. Discover the social and political history of modern Greece through documents, maps, photographs, historical clothing, the personal belongings of prominent figures, and items from everyday life.

To check opening hours and tickets, visit the official website of the museum

The National Historical Museum is located in the building of the Old Parliament where the national delegation was housed for more the 60 years up to 1935. The permanent exhibition outlines the historical course of Greece from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the beginnings of the Second World War. Its collection especially brings to light the period of the Greek Revolution against the Ottoman rule and the establishment of the modern Greek state. Visitors can view works of art including paintings, sculptures, and engravings by Greek and foreign artists. Browse military memorabilia, flags, and weapons that were used during various wars. Discover the social and political history of modern Greece through documents, maps, photographs, historical clothing, the personal belongings of prominent figures, and items from everyday life.

To check opening hours and tickets, visit the official website of the museum

The Athens City Museum provides a cultural snapshot of urban life in Athens in the 19th century. The museum’s collections of paintings, sculptures, and antique furniture narrate the story of daily life in the first years of the modern Greek State. It is housed in two of the capital´s oldest neoclassical mansions. This two-building complex, one of which is known as the ‘Old Palace’, was the place chosen for the first royal couple. King Otto and Queen Amalia lived here for a short time.

Visit the Athens City Museum’s official website, to check opening hours and tickets.

The Epigraphic and Numismatic Museum, founded in 1834 in Athens, is one of the oldest and most important museums dedicated to greek monetary history. It houses a collection of over half a million numismatic objects, ranging from ancient Greek and Roman coins to modern currency. The museum also hosts a permanent exhibition, in which you will find hoards, weights, lead stamps, medals, and gems. This museum is a must-visit even if you are not really into old coins. The building of the museum is Iliou Melathron, a building with an impressive story worth seeing. It was the home of Heinrich Schliemann, the famous archaeologist who discovered Mycenae, Tiryns, and the site presumed to be Troy. The mansion was constructed in the late nineteenth century by the German architect Ernst Ziller. The building embodies the Neoclassical architectural trends of the time while combining elements of the Italian Renaissance. The mansion is decorated with wall paintings inspired by Pompeian frescos, and inscriptions of excerpts from works of ancient Greek authors, such as Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and Lucian. To check opening hours and tickets, visit the official website of the museum

A visit to the Kotsanas Museum of the Ancient Greek Technology is a surprising insight into the history of Ancient Greece. This small museum in the center of Athens is trying to revive the ancient knowledge of the technology Greeks had. It aims at giving a comprehensive picture of an unknown aspect of the ancient Greek culture, its deep connection with innovations in science and technology. Ancient Greeks invented complex systems from robotics to computing mechanisms, from telecommunications to automatic navigation, from tools to gadgets.

To check opening hours and tickets, visit the official website of the museum

The Jewish Museum of Greece provides a vivid picture of the domestic and religious life of the community in Greece over the centuries. It was founded in 1977 to collect and preserve 2,300 years of historical evidence. It started as a small collection of Jewish artifacts and religious objects in a small room next to the city synagogue. Today, the museum hosts exhibitions that showcase more than 8,000 objects from various historical eras and distinct areas in Greece, where Jewish communities flourished. Now, it is housed in a 19th-century neoclassical building in Plaka. The renovation of the building also attracts special attention: it was carefully designed to keep the exterior of the building as close to the original as possible, while the interior was fully rebuilt to meet the standards of a modern museum.

To check opening hours and tickets, visit the official website of the museum

If you are strolling around the archeological site of the Ancient Agora in Athens, don’t miss the opportunity to visit the museum. The Museum is housed in the Stoa of Attalos, a building that was restored to its original size providing a glimpse into how ancient Athens’ agora used to look. A Stoa in ancient Greek architecture refers to a building, which housed shops and public offices. These buildings were usually long, open with a covered facade. They were the meeting points of the ancient Greeks. The permanent exhibition showcases unique ancient artifacts from the excavations onsite from Neolithic times to the beginnings of Ottoman rule. The museum displays some of the most important artifacts reflecting the economic, social, and political development during the classic and post-classic eras.

We hope we’ve helped you narrow down the best museums to visit in Athens so that you can have a perfect trip.