The Acropolis Museum

The Acropolis Museum stands at the foot of the sacred rock in Athens, purpose-built to house the surviving sculptures, architectural fragments, and artefacts recovered from the Acropolis hill and its surrounding slopes. Designed by Swiss-French architect Bernard Tschumi and opened in 2009, the building is a work of considered restraint: its glass floors reveal ancient Athenian ruins excavated beneath the structure itself, while its top-floor Parthenon Gallery aligns precisely with the temple above, allowing natural light to fall across the marble frieze in the same orientation it once did on the hill.

The permanent collection traces the full arc of the Acropolis from the Archaic period through to late antiquity, with the Caryatids of the Erechtheion among its most recognised exhibits. The museum also makes a sustained case for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, displaying casts alongside original pieces to illustrate what remains separated. Skip-the-line tickets are available for visitors who wish to move directly into the galleries without queuing at the entrance.