Athens Railway Museum

The Museum was founded in 1979 and belongs to the Greek Railways Organization. Its aim is to preserve samples of the technological development of the means of transportation in Greece. Among the Museum's exhibits are included: steam lecomotives dating from 1884 steam locomotives of mine-trains wagons of old trains, royal riages and the smoking car of the train of the sultan Abdul Aziz Athenian tramways of the past decades hand-and-foot operated draeseners models and photographic material instruments, printing implements, tickets, uniforms and mechanics' tools of the 19th century.

4 Siokou Street
210-4903163, 210-5246580, 210-5126295

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Byzantine and Christian Museum

The Byzantine Museum was founded in 1914. From 1930 on it has been housed in the "Ilisia" mansion, which belonged to the Duchess of Placentia and was built in 1848 by the architect Stamatis Kleanthes. It was transformed into a museum by the architect Aristotle Zachos. In recent yars an addition and a large extension with basement and buildings in part above ground have been made. The architectural design is by Manos Perrakis. The collections of the Byzantine Museum show the course of Greek art from the 4th to the 19th century. They comprise sculptural works, paintings and small works of all sorts. These works represent the artistic production of the Greek area, and other regions both central and peripheral of the Byzantine empire and subsequently of Hellenism on into post-Byzantine times.

22 Vasilissas Sophias
Byzantine and Christian Museum

Dimitris Pierides Museum of Contemporary Art

The Museum was founded in 1980. At present, the Dimitris Pierides collection numbers 1,040 paintings, sculptures, engravings and ceramics and includes works which were mainly created after the Second World War by artists from Greece and Cyprus. Since 1983, the Museum has organized many cultural activities in Athens and other places in Greece and abroad. It has also set up a library of modern Greek art and provides the funding for specialized publications related to the study of Cypriot Archaeology as well as to 20th century Greek art.

29 Vas. Georgiou A' Avenue
210-8981729 , 210-8981167

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JEWISH MUSEUM

The Jewish museum displays art and artifacts from Jewish communities as well as documentation of the Holocaust.

39, Nikis Str., Athens
2103225582

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Municipal Gallery of Athens

The Municipal Gallery of Athens is housed in a neoclassical building, on Koumoundourou Square, built on the plans of the architect Panagis Kalkos in 1874. The inauguration of the Gallery took place on the 22nd of September, 1982. Before that, the collection had been housed, since 1974, in the Cultural Centre of the Municipality, on Acadimias Street. The Municipality of Athens began to put together its artist collection in 1923. The first work it bought was the sculpture by D. Philippotis, "The Fisherman", and it is interesting to note that half of the 2,355 works of art which the Gallery counts among its collection, were acquired during the period 1930-1940. Almost all the Greek artists, whose creations marked the history of Greek art and who contributed to its development in the 20th century, are represented by some of their important works in the collection of the Municipal Gallery. Among its most interesting features are the collection of engravings, with works by the great masters of this art and their worthy followers, but also of works by young engravers; the full representation of the generation of artists of the '30s; the collection of works by the famous architect, Ziller, which are of artistic and historical interest, and among which are 56 drawings of the National Theatre, the Municipal Theatre, as well as of private homes; also the paintings of ruins by V. Lanza; the portraits of Mayors and Presidents of Municipal Councils painted by masters of the style (Tsokos, Kalloudis, Iakovides) and a large number of drawings of the Arts Sanctuary inspired from the Athens of their time.

51 Piraeos Street
210-3243022, 210-3243023

Museum of Cycladic Art

The Museum of Cycladic Art is devoted to the study and promotion of ancient Greek art. It 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 Sixties, and with a permit by the Greek State, the couple collected Greek antiquities, with special interest in the prehistoric art from the Cycladic islands. The Collection was augmented during the Seventies, following the two main directions it had been given in the previous years: The Cycladic Collection, which was now given a slight preference owing to the scholarly importance of the subject and the ever growing international interest and the Ancient Greek Collection, covering Greek art from the 2nd millennium B.C. to the first centuries A.D., which was also enriched with significant additions. Between 1979 and 1984, the Nicholas P. Goulandris Collection was exhibited in some of the most important Museums world-wide: the National Gallery of Art in Washington (1979), the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo (1980), the Museum of Fine Arts at Houston (1981), the Royal Museum of History and Art in Brussels (1982), the British Museum in London (1983), and the Grand Palais in Paris (1983). Already in 1981 Nicholas and Dolly Goulandris had decided that their collection was to be permanently exhibited in Athens, in a Museum open to scholars and the general public. In 1986, the Nicholas P. Goulandris Foundation was created and approved by the Greek State. According to its constituent act, the Foundation's objectives are the study of Aegean civilisation, research into Greek prehistoric and Classical art, and its dissemination and promotion. The Foundation ensures the protection, display, and expansion of the collection; organises temporary exhibitions on important topics; undertakes the publication of scholarly monographs and catalogues; and participates in research projects world-wide.

4 Neophytou Douka Str.
210-7228321 - 3

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Museum of Engravings and Graphic Arts

The course of the Ionian Bank, throughout its 150 years of life, has run parallel to the course of modern Greek engraving. To celebrate this anniversary, the Bank decided to create a collection of engravings and graphic arts, with the intention of founding a Museum to house this collection, which would cover the lack of such an institution in Greece. To date, over 3000 works of Greek engravers have been collected, as well as 300 books and other objects related to the field of Graphic Arts. The present administration of the Ionian Bank has already secured a building to house the collection and is proceeding to the foundation of the first Museum of Engravings and Graphic Arts in Greece, which is also the one of the very few in the whole Europe. The Museum is housed in an attractive neoclassical building in Aghias Philotheis Street, near the Cathedral church Athens. The Museum aims to cover the entire spectrum of modern Greek engraving as well as that of foreign artists who have chosen subjects related to Greece.

Ionian Bank, 10 Aghias Philotheis Street, Plateia Metropoleos
210-3238945

Museum of the City of Athens

Athens, the oldest and most famous city of Europe, presents part of her most recent History: the period commencing in 1832, when she was appointed capital of the newly-founded Modern Greek State by its first king, Otto. The tour of the Museum includes many other sectors of the History, Civilisation and Life of Athens (both past and contemporary). Several specific collections and typical sitting and living rooms of the Athenian 19th century aristocracy present a rich view of the life in Athens at the time.

5-7 I. Paparrigopoulou Street
210-3231397, 210-3230168

National Archaeological Museum

The National Archaeological Museum ranks among the top ten museums in the world. It's impressive collection is housed in a beautiful neoclassic building near the juncture of Alexandras Avenue on Patission Avenue. There is a gift shop, and a cafe in the sculpture garden.

The museum is a five minute walk from Victoria Station and 10 min. from Omonia. The Trolley #'s 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,11,13,

National Art Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum

The National Art Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, the most important institution in Greece devoted to the subject of the history of Greek and Western European art, has been in operation, in its present form, since 1976. The actual founding of the institution dates back to 1900, when the relevant decree was published and the duties of curator were undertaken by George Iakovides (1900-1918). Already, however, in 1834, within the framework of the new social organization - on Western European lines - of the newly-born Greek state, the decree "On Technological Collections" provided for the founding, in Athens, of a Museum of paintings and engravings. Alexandros Soutzos, a lawyer and art-lover, donated all his property and his collection of works of art, for the creation of a Museum of painting. In 1918, under the directorship of Zacharias Papantoniou (1918-1940), the first constitution of the National Art Gallery was drawn up and, in 1954, the gallery was amalgamated with the Alexandros Soutzos Museum of Painting. The Art Gallery gives priority to the presentation of the Greek art of the period after the War of Independence. The initial nucleus of paintings, which had already been formed in the early years of the new state, under governor Capodistria, was enriched by donations, particularly of works of western European art, which had belonged to wealthy Greeks of the diaspora. To the 117 works, which the museum numbered in 1878, were added a large number of paintings donated by Alexandros Soutzos, among which are paintings by Caravaggio, Andrea Pavia, Stefano Tzangarolo, Ghyzis, Lytras, Volanakis, etc. Today, the National Gallery possesses a collection of 9.500 paintings, sculptures and engravings as well as miniatures and furniture. Apart from the important donations, which continued to flow in, such as those of George Averoff, Aikaterini Rodocanachi, Gregorios Maraslis, Antonis Benakis, Theodoros Rallis, Nikiphoros Lytras, the French state - thanks to the initiative of Roger and Tatiana Milliex - Yiannoulis Halepas, Sophia Partheni, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, Yiannis Moralis and others, the art treasures of the gallery were enriched in the times of Zacharias Papantoniou and Marinos Kalligas, by purchases of important works, such as the "Concert of the Angels" by Domenicos Theotokopoulos (El Greco), Lorenzo Veneziano's "Crucifixion", the "Virgin", a work of the 16th-cebtury School of nothern Italy, the exceptional collection of engravings from the 16th to the 20th century. In 1977, the splendid Euripides Coutlides collection was also added to the National Art Gallery, and the two collections, which complement each other, thus present a total view of the Greek 19th-century art. Today, there is a speciazized library on the History of Art at the National Art Gallery. A complete photographic workshop has been set up, as well as a modern conservation workshop; also a wood restoration and carpentry workshop, while another service undertakes the conservation of paper. Finally, on the ground floor of the main building, has been created a Gallery of Sculptures, for the display of 19th and 20th-century sculptures.

1, Michalakopoulou str. - 50, Vas. Constantinou str.
210-7235857, 210-7216560, 210-7235937-8

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NUMISMATIC MUSEUM

The only numismatic museum in Greece and the Balkans with more than 600,000 coins from the Roman and Byzantine periods and the Middle Ages in Western Europe.

12, Panepistimiou Str., Athens
210-3643774

The Acropolis Museum

It is one of the most important museums in the world. It temporarily houses masterpieces of the ancient Greek civilization, dedicated to the most important of the Athenian sanctuaries, the "temenos" of Athena Parthenos. Preparations for the erection of the New Acropolis Museum have already begun. Many of the unique works of art that ornamented the Acropolis have been stolen and transferred abroad. The worst plundering of the monuments took place in the beginning of the 19th century by Lord Elgin. The museum was designed by the architect Panages Kalkos and constructed between 1865 and 1874. In the 1950's it was extended towards the east and the exhibition was rearranged by the archaeologist I. Meliades. The museum contains only the stone sculptures from the monuments of the Acropolis and from the excavations on the site. Since the beginning of the excavations, the vases and the bronzes have been kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, while the inscriptions are housed in the Epigraphical Museum.

210-3214172, 210-3236665, 210-9238724

The Benaki Museum

The Benaki Museum was founded in 1930 by Antonis Benakis (1873-1954), member of a pre-eminent Greek family in Alexandria, which made an invaluable contribution to the political, social and cultural life of Greece. Benakis began forming his collections whilst still in Egypt and donated them to the Greek State in 1926, when he settled permanently in Athens. These collections are housed in his paternal home, one of the handsomest Neoclassical buildings in the capital, which was converted into the first private museum in Greece.

1, Koumbari str & Vas. Sofias av.
Tel 210 3671000

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The Goulandris Museum of Natural History

The Goulandris Museum of Natural History was founded in 1965 in order to promote interest in the natural sciences, to raise the awareness of the public, in general, and in particural to call its attention to the need to protect Greece's natural wildlife habitats and species in the danger of extinction. The Museum includes large collections of insects, mammals, birds, reptiles, shells, rocks, minerals and fossils, from the rich natural wildlife of the Greek territory. The botanical collections number over 200.000 species of plants, among which there are 145 newly-discovered ones, which have been recorded thanks to the Museum's research. In the Museum's laboratories, scientific research is being carried out in the areas of ecology, botany, zoology, geology, palaeontology and biotechnology. In the exhibition rooms are presented in detail the variety and interdependence of the biocommunities and the floral, animal and geological wealth of Greece. The Goulandris Museum of Natural History also functions as a complementary educational institution for all levels of education. Its activities include further education programmes, seminars, lectures, the publication of books and other material, and itinerant exhibitions on crucial environmental issues in Greece and abroad. The Museum is linked to international organizations and to Institutes of Higher Education.

13 Levidou Street
210-8015870, 210-8086405, 210-8087345

WAR MUSEUM

War objects and tools from ancient times to this century including armor, swords, torpedoes, and fighter planes. The museum also displays photographs of various Greek campaigns and battles.

2, Rizari Str. & Vasilissis Sofias Ave., Athens
210-7252974, 7290543

Zoological Museum

The Zoological Museum of the University of Athens is the oldest and richest zoological museum of Greece. It is part of the National Natural History Museum that is the oldest natural history museum in the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. The basic aims of the Museum are: Safeguarding the natural heritage of Greece Sensitization and raising of public awareness Research Training of students and staff Consulting

Dept. of Biology, University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis
210-7274609