This is a complete guide to all the museums in Athens. The guide came about as a personal project to visit every museum in Athens. In the beginning, I had a list of 60 museums to choose from. Now, this list of museums in Athens has 77 places, and I discover more each month!
Museums in Athens Greece
Apart from the popular museums such as the Acropolis Museum, and the National Archaeological Museum, few visitors to Athens are aware of just how many more there are.
There are dozens upon dozens of museums in Athens, but these smaller ones just slip off the radar.
This means that most visitors to Athens will never get to see such gems as the Shadow Puppet Museum, or the Numismatic Museum, which if I were to judge by just the name alone, would surely be the best!
Even if they did know about them, visiting them all could take weeks.
If that sounds like you, you might want to short cut to my article about the best museums in Athens.
Visiting All The Museums In Athens
Which is where I come in. Whilst I am living in Greece, I do have time to visit all the museums in Athens. Not in one go though, obviously.
My intention is to visit one a week, and then write about it on this travel blog. This way, it will become a regular weekly feature, and hopefully a resource to anyone who is thinking of visiting Athens.
Note – Choosing how to define ‘Athens' is no easy task. For the sake of simplicity, I have decided it is the greater metropolitan area, which also includes Piraeus.Choosing the Museums in Athens
How do I go about choosing which museums in Athens to visit first then?
I suppose I could just go by the most popular ones first. That's a bit boring and predictable though.
Instead, I think I will use a lottery system, and give each museum a number. I will then use an online randomizer to pick a number from a ‘virtual hat'. (Did that sound massively geeky?).
A List Of Museums in Athens
This is where I face a bit of a problem.
Putting together a comprehensive list of museums in Athens is no easy task.
Part of the reason for this, is that some are run by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, some by The City of Athens, and others run by who knows!
It goes without saying that there is no official list of all the museums in Athens. This is the real Greece baby!
So, think of the list below not quite as the definitive one, but more of a work in progress.
As I discover more, I will add them to the list.
If you think I have left any out, or know of any I should add, then please leave a comment below.
The underlined museums are linked to full blog posts about each one. If you see a museum not underlined, that's because I haven't been there yet.
All the Museums in Central Athens
- Acropolis Museum
- Archaeological Museum of Kerameikos
- Epigraphical Museum
- Museum of Cycladic Art
- Museum of the Ancient Agora + Stoa of Attalos
- Museum of the Center for the Acropolis Studies
- National Archaeological Museum of Athens
Old Acropolis Museum– CLOSED- Numismatic Museum of Athens
- Syntagma Metro Station Archaeological Collection
- Byzantine and Christian Museum (of Athens)
- Benaki Museum -Main Building
- Eleftherios Venizelos Historical Museum
- Jewish Museum of Greece
- Museum of Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulou
- Museum of the City of Athens
- National Historical Museum of Greece (Old Parliament House)
- Centre for the Study of Traditional Pottery
- Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum
- Museum of Greek Folk Art
- Museum of Popular Music Instruments
- Museum of the History of the Greek Costume
- Athinais Culture Center
- Bernier-Iliadis Gallery Museum
- City of Athens Cultural Center
- Design Museum of the 20th Century
- Frissiras Museum
- Gounaropoulos Museum
- Herakleidon Art Museum (Main Building)
- The Herakleidon Museum in Athens – Annex Building
- Museum of Engravings and Graphic Arts
- Marika Kotopouli Museum
- Haridimos Shadow Puppet Museum
- Municipal Gallery of Athens
- Museum of Children's Art in Plaka
- National Glyptotheque
- National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
- Paxinou-Minotis Museum
- Pieridis Museum of Ancient Cypriot Greek Art & Contemporary Art
- The N. Chatzikiriakos-Gkikas Art Gallery
- Technopolis Industrial Gas Museum
- Theatrical Museum of Greece
- Zoumboulaki Gallery
- Athens War Museum
- Museum of the Athens-Piraeus Electric Railways
- Museum of Anthropology, University of Athens
- Museum of Geology and Paleontology of the Athens University
- Zoological Museum of the University of Athens
- Athens University Museum
- Hellenic Children's Museum
- Postal & Philatelic Museum of Greece
- Deste Foundation (exhibition area)
- Drossinis Museum
- Spathario Museum
- Yiannis Tsarouchis Foundation Museum
- OTE Museum of Telecommunications, Kifisia
- Gaia Center
- Goulandris Natural History Museum
- Evgenidio Foundation (Planetarium and Science museum)
- Greek armored cruiser Georgios Averof
- Tactual Museum of Athens
- Archaeological (Piraeus)
- Archaeological Museum of Piraeus
- Municipal Art Gallery of Piraeus
- Panos Aravantinos Decor Museum
- Hellenic Maritime Museum (Piraeus)
- Hellenic Motor Museum
- The Bath House of the Winds (Annex of the Museum of Greek Folk Art)
- Museum on Panos Street (Annex of the Museum of Greek Folk Art)
- Ai Stratis Political Exile Museum
- Makronisos Political Exile Museum
- Museum of Greek Gastronomy
- Destroyer Velos D-16
- Museum of Criminology
- Atelier Spyros Vassiliou' Museum
- The Museum of Islamic Art in Athens (Benaki Museum in Kerameikos)
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Michele TravelwithMrsT says
What a great idea! I never knew there were so many smaller museums, and I lived in Athens for 4 years, and visit quite often. Due for a visit this summer! I’ll meet you at a museum!