The 10 Best Museums in Museum Island, Germany

Home to three famous museums - the Pergamon, the Altes and the Bode.

We are more than happy that starting from 12th of May 2020 we can reopen several of the museums belonging to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – among them the Alte Nationalgalerie! Please note that during your visit you have to follow some special hygiene and safety measures. All important information about visiting the museum can be found on our website. // The collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie is one of the largest collection of art between the French Revolution and the First World War, between Classicism and secession. Unique is the harmony between the collection and the style of the building.

The Pergamonmuseum is a three-wing complex. The museum houses three of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s collections: the Antikensammlung, Vorderasiatisches Museum, and the Museum für Islamische Kunst. The impressive reconstructions of massive archaeological structures – the Pergamon Altar, Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way from Babylon, and the Mshatta Facade – have made the Pergamonmuseum famous throughout the world, with the result that it is the most visited museum at the Staatliche Museen and in Germany as a whole.

The opening of the Neues Museum marked a key chapter in the history of 19th-century art, museum design, and technology. Designed by Friedrich August Stüler and built from 1843 to 1855, the building suffered severe damage during World War II, after which it was left as an abandoned bombsite. Emergency measures to secure the structure were only taken in the 1980s. Painstaking restoration work got under way in 2003 and was undertaken by the offices of the British architect David Chipperfield.The museum reopened its doors to the public in 2009 and combines geographically and thematically related exhibits pooled together from three separate collections at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: the collection of Egyptian art from the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, of prehistoric objects from the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, and of classical antiquities from the Antikensammlung.

This museum features a large collection of various classical antiques.

We are more than happy that starting from 12th of May 2020 we can reopen several of the museums belonging to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – among them the Altes Museum! Please note that during your visit you have to follow some special hygiene and safety measures. All important information about visiting the museum can be found on our website. // Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Altes Museum, is one of the most important buildings of the Neoclassical era. The monumental arrangement of eighteen Ionic fluted columns, the expansive atrium and sweeping staircase that invites visitors to ascend to the top, the rotunda adorned with Antique sculptures on all sides as a place to collect one’s thoughts and an explicit reference to Rome’s Pantheon. Today the museum houses the Antikensammlung, showcasing its permanent exhibition on the art and culture of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. The Munzkabinett complements this sweeping overview of classical antiquity.

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin closed from Saturday onwards From Saturday, 14.03.2020, onwards all buildings of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin will be closed until further notice. This measure is intended to minimise the spread of the coronavirus. We ask our visitors for their understanding. The concept of the museum, which was originally called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, can be traced back to Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia, who published her ideas in a memorandum in 1883. It was Wilhelm von Bode who finally put these ground-breaking ideas into practice. In 1897, construction work began at the northern tip of the Museum Island on a museum that was to be devoted to the Renaissance, designed by Eberhard von Ihne. The building was badly damaged in the Second World War. In 1956 it was renamed the Bode-Museum after its first director and spiritual founder. After extensive renovation work, the museum building reopened to the public in autumn 2006.