The Herakleidon Museum in Athens consists of two buildings. The main building houses a permanent interactive exhibition aimed towards students and teachers. The Annex building houses temporary exhibitions. This article focuses on the annex building of the Herakleidon Museum in Athens. An article covering the main building will be written at a later date.
The Herakleidon Museum in Athens – Annex Building
The Herakleidon Museum in Athens is a private museum, which has been open since 2004. Originally conceived as an arts and culture museum, it has since repositioned itself as an interactive science and arts centre.
The main building is mainly used by school groups for educational purposes. The annex building of the Herakleidon Museum in Athens was opened in 2014, and houses temporary exhibitions.
It has a prime location on Apostolou Pavlou opposite the Acropolis, and so it is quite easy to fit a visit in here on a sightseeing tour over 2 days in Athens.
Inventions of the Ancient Greeks
When I visited the annex building of the Herakleidon Museum in Athens, the temporary exhibition was “The Amazing Inventions of the Ancient Greeks”.
I was quite excited to see this exhibition, as I had previously seen it on a road trip of the Peloponnese in its permanent home of the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology.
I remembered that some of the machines were interactive, and as I had my nephew and niece with me, I thought this would be an interesting museum to see.
The annex of the Herakleidon Museum in Athens is a nice space, with various rooms laid out over two levels. Sadly though, none of the machines on display were interactive, which I felt was a massive shame.
Everything was well laid out, and superbly labelled, but it would have been so much better if we could have worked some of the machines ourselves. I suppose in a way, it is something I may not have thought about if I had not visited with my nephew and niece.
With that said, I still believe that the exhibition is worth visiting. The ingenious devices and machines that people invented over 2000 years ago seemed very far ahead of their time, and it acts as a good reminder that we are not as clever as we like to think we are! Could you have invented any of those items?
Walking around Athens
The exhibition has been extended until May 2016. After this, it may be extended again, or another temporary exhibition will take its place.
We spent about half an hour there, and so it is very easy to fit this in to a sight-seeing schedule of Athens, especially if you plan to walk around the Acropolis on the pedestrianised path.
The annex building of the Herakleidon Museum in Athens can be found at Apostolou Pavlou 37, Thissio, Athens. The closest metro station is at Thissio.
I couldn't find any details about opening hours, and I forgot to ask when I was there (my bad, sorry!). I imagine it is open most days between 10.00 and 17.00, but you could always give them a call to check – T: +30 211 012 6486.
I visited the Herakleidon Museum as part of my project to visit every museum in Athens. You can find a complete list of museums in Athens here >> Full List of Museums in Athens.
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