It was founded in 1986, to house the collection of Nicholas and Dolly Goulandris. Since then it has grown in size to accommodate new acquisitions, obtained either through direct purchases or through donations by important collectors and institutions.

Today, in the galleries of the MCA the visitor can approach three major subjects:

• the Cycladic Culture of the Early Bronze Age ( 3200 – 2000 BC)
•  the Ancient Greek Art, from the Bronze Age to Late Roman times (2nd millenium BC - 4th century AD)
• the Cypriot Culture from the Chalcolithic Age to the Early Christian period  (4th millenium BC - 6th century AD)

The premises

The MCA is housed in two separate buildings, which are connected by a glass-roofed corridor: the Main Building, housing the permanent collections and the New Wing, and the Stathatos Mansion, housing the temporary exhibitions.

The Main Building,

 at 4 Neophytou Douka str., was built in 1985 by the architect Ioannis Vikelas to house the permanent collections of the MCA.

Ιts façade combines marble and glass, conveying the sense of austerity and the diffusion of refracted light that predominate in the Cycladic landscape. The interior is distinguished by simple lines and a modern aesthetic, as well as the use of materials encountered in the Cyclades, such as marble and granite. The builidng has 4 floors with galleries, occupying in total approximately 2,300 sq. m., storerooms, workshops, and offices 

From the entrance, the visitor can approach the museum shop (extending into the basement) and the atrium, where the museum cafe is situated.

From the atrium, a corridor leads to the Stathatos Mansion. On the ground floor, the visitor comes across introductory wall texts with useful information about Cycladic art. 

Next to the main entrance, the visitor can approach the New Wing of the MCA. The New Wing, which opened to the public in late 2005 and added another 500 sq. m. to the museum, has multiple functions: it houses the Department of Educational Programmes and several educational activities; it provides a space for lectures and seminars; it houses temporary exhibitions.

The New Wing has been organized efficiently into separate rooms, all equipped with modern technological devices which can be used for different purposes, according to the needs and the schedule of events.

The Stathatos Mansion houses temporary exhibitions and the offices of the museum. The building is accessible both from the corner of Vasilissis Sophias Avenue and Irodotou Street, and from the Main Building, via a closed passageway leading from the atrium.

The Stathatos Mansion, work of the Bavarian architect Ernst Ziller, is one of the most important extant examples of Neoclassical architecture in nineteenth-century Athens. It was built in 1895 as the residence of the family of Othon and Athina Stathatos, to whom it belonged until 1938. It subsequently housed diplomatic representations of various states. In 1982 it was purchased by the Greek State and was restored and refurbished by the architect P. Kalligas, with a view to its use as accommodation for VIP guests of the State. For various reasons this plan was abandoned and in 1991 the building was leased to the MCA, in order to cover its increased needs for exhibition space. In 2001 the Greek State decided to concede its use for another 50 years to the N.P. Goulandris Foundation, to facilitate the operation of the museum.

Opening hours

Monday – Wednesday – Friday – Saturday:    10:00 – 17:00  Thursday:    10:00 – 20:00  Sunday:    11:00 – 17:00  Tuesday:    closed   Public Holidays (museum is closed): 1 January, Easter, Easter Monday, Spirit Monday, 1 May, 25 December, 26 December, Shrove Monday, 25 March, 15 August. On Wednesday 17 November 2010 the Museum of Cycladic Art will open from 10:00 to 15:00.          Admission      Standard entrance fee  (except for Monday)    € 7        Reduced entrance fees      - seniors (over 65)    € 3,5   - 19-26 years old    € 2,5 - groups of 15 or more    € 5 (each)       Monday entrance fee    € 3,5       Free admission    - kids and young persons under 18      - visitors with disabilities and their companion      - members of the MCA      - archaeologists      - archaeology and art history students      - members of ICOM – ICOMOS      - journalists      - qualified guides      - teachers accompanying school-classes participating in educational programmes      - parents accompanying their kids for the Saturday’s programme            Entrance   There are two entrances to the MCA:   Main Building (Permanent Collections) 4 Neophytou Douka st.   Stathatos Mansion (Temporary exhibitions) Vasilissis Sophias Ave and 1 Irodotou St.     There is an internal connection between the buildings. Fee includes same day admission to both wingd. There is no extra charge for entrance to temporary exhibitions, unless stated otherwise. Public transport Metro Line 3: stations Evangelismos, Syntagma (Line 3 terminates at the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport) Line 2: station Syntagma   Buses Α5, Ε6, Ε7, Χ14, 054, 200, 203, 204, 220, 221, 224, 235, 408, 608, 622, 732, 815 Trolley-buses 3, 7, 13

• In the Museum’s neoclassical building, after its usable areas doubled in size as a result of the enlargement, only the collections that “narrate” the history of Hellenism over time were displayed in an enriched form. On the first of the building’s five levels are the offices of the academic and scientific departments, the Exhibitions and Publications departments, the Educational Programmes and Information Technology departments together with the Director’s, Assistant Director’s and Secretariat offices. The same level houses the Library, the hall in which the Board of Trustees meets, together with support groups, the Financial and Legal Services, the offices of the Gift Shop, Security Services, Staff and Custodial Staff, and Technological, Electrical and Mechanical Supervision. The ground floor, where the visitors’ entrance and exit are located, accommodates the first Museum Gift Shop in Greece, while on the terrace, apart from the Temporary Exhibits Hall and a small amphitheatre for holding seminars, there is the Restaurant-Snack Bar, also the first in Greece.

• The other sections that make up the Hellenic core of the Benaki Museum have become independent centres, including the Photographic and Historical Archives not only because of their unexpectedly spectacular enrichment, but because they serve research needs first and foremost. The move of the Historical Archives to Kifissia was facilitated by the donation of Stephanos and Penelope Delta’s villa by their daughter Alexandra Papadopoulou, and that of the Photographic Archives to Kolonaki Square by the bequest of a large house by Mary Karolou and Penny Blagali. The more recently constituted department of the Neohellenic Architecture Archives, whose enrichment met with a surprisingly good response, was eventually established in its definitive and ideal location in the New Building on Pireos Street.

Historical Archives
38 Emm. Benaki & St. Delta St. 145 61 Kifisia
tel 210 807 9878, 210 808 1896
fax 210 620 6700
historical_archives@benaki.gr

Photografic Archives
15 Filikis Eterias Square
106 73 Athens
tel 210 721 1033
fax 210 722 8465
photographic_archive@benaki.gr

• The property in the Syntagma Square district that was donated to the Museum by Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika is evolving into an independent branch after its radical repair. Here the residence, studio and Gallery of the artist’s works will remain as permanent exhibits and the other levels of the multi-storey building will be used to make known the works of the 1930s Generation.

N. Hadjikyriakos-Ghika Gallery
3 Kriezotou St.

tel 210 361 5702, 210 363 0818
fax 210 362 6266
ghika_gallery@benaki.gr

• In the equally important second significant axis of the new organisation chart, that of foreign cultures, another satellite branch was established upon the independence of the Islamic Art collections and their move to the building complex in Kerameikos that was donated by Lambros Eutaxias. It is anticipated that the Chinese, Indian and Pre-Columbian Art sections will, by 2008, have been housed in the building on Pireos Street, where it is hoped that the still homeless African Art, which is unknown in Greece, will also be housed eventually.

Museum of Islamic Art
22 Ag. Asomaton & 12 Dipilou St.
tel 210 325 1311
fax 210 322 5550
islamic_collection@benaki.gr

• Among the various independent branches that today support the functions of the Museum, the building on Pireos Street, with its avant-garde architecture and its attraction of the younger generation, has proved to be one of the most significant cultural centres in the Greek capital. With the largest and best exhibition areas, with its 400-seat amphitheatre and large atrium, with its snack bar and gift shop, it is equipped according to the most up-to-date technological specifications so as to serve the complex organisational demands of artistic, musical, conference, dance, theatrical and cinema events simultaneously. Another of the basic support units is the Toys and Childhood Department, whose collections will be displayed to the public when repairs on the neo-Gothic mansion in Paleo Faliro, the bequest of Vera Kouloura, have been completed. The Conservation Department, organised by individual special fields, takes care of protecting all the Museum material, and is already decentralised in other independent buildings.

Pireos St. Annexe
138 Pireos & Andronikou St.
tel 210 345 3111
fax 210 345 3743

• The Museum firmament was recently expanded by the addition of three new satellites: the workshop in the Zographou district – in which all paintings and sculptures of Yannis Pappas are gathered, having been donated by the artist – resolutely fosters the effort that has been made for years now to organise a panorama of modern Greek art. The house on Lycabettus that was a bequest of Eleni Theochari-Perraki, together with all her puppet theatre material, reinforces the work being carried out in related departments of the Museum. The acquisition of the post-Byzantine Monastery of the Virgin Mary in Limeni, Oitylos with the financial contribution of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, encourages the prospects of the Museum’s favourable intervention in Greece as a whole, providing of course that the Monastery can be restored and eventually house a Study and Research Centre on the Traditional Culture of Mani. Precisely the same holds for the future operation in other regions of two Hospitality Centres for persons of culture and the arts from Greece and abroad.

Yannis Pappas Studio
38, Anakreontos
157 72 Zografou
tel 210 777 3946

• The theoretical foundation for the ideology that animates the New Benaki Museum is obvious enough not to require any further elaboration. It is, in short, an “open” system, i.e. relieved of the lurking threat of entropy, but also socially sensitive, thus ensuring confidence in its broad acceptance.

Address & Contact

 The Museum

The National Archaeological Museum is the largest museum in Greece and one of the world’s great museums. Although its original purpose was to secure all the finds from the nineteenth century excavations in and around Athens, it gradually became the central National Archaeological Museum and was enriched with finds from all over Greece. Its abundant collections, with more than 11,000 exhibits, provide a panorama of Greek civilization from the beginnings of Prehistory to Late Antiquity.  The museum is housed in an imposing neoclassical building of the end of the nineteenth century, which was designed by L. Lange and remodelled by Ernst Ziller. The vast exhibition space – numerous galleries on each floor accounting for a total of 8,000 square metres – house five large permanent collections: The Prehistoric Collection, which includes works of the great civilizations that developped in the Aegean from the sixth millennium BC to 1050 BC (Neolithic, Cycladic, Mycenaean), and finds from the prehistoric settlement at Thera. The Sculptures Collection, which shows the development of ancient Greek sculpture from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC with unique masterpieces. The Vase and Minor Objects Collection, which contains representative works of ancient Greek pottery from the eleventh century BC to the Roman period and includes the Stathatos Collection, a corpus of minor objects of all periods. The Metallurgy Collection, with many fundamental statues, figurines and minor objects. And, finally, the only Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection in Greece, with works dating from the pre-dynastic period (5000 BC) to the Roman conquest. The museum possesses a rich photographic archive and a library with many rare publications, the latter of which is constantly enriched to meet the needs of the research staff. There are also modern conservation laboratories for metal, pottery, stone and organic materials, a cast workshop, a photographic laboratory and a chemistry laboratory. The museum has temporary exhibition spaces, a lecture hall for archaeological lectures and one of the largest shops of the Archaeological Receipts Fund.   The National Archaeological Museum welcomes thousands of visitors each year. Besides displaying its own treasures, it organizes temporary exhibitions and lends artefacts to exhibitions both in Greece and abroad. It also functions as a research center for scientists and scholars from around the world and participates in special educational and other programs. An important feature is the availability of guided visits for people with hearing impediments. The Museum functions as a Special Regional Service of the Ministry of Culture and its five permanent collections are administered autonomously.  The opening hours for the National Archaeological Museum from November 1st 2010 will be: Opening hours: Monday: 13:30-20:00 Tuesday-Sunday: 08:30-15:00   The National Archaeological Museum is closed on 25 – 26 December, 1 January, 25 March, Orthodox Easter Sunday and 1 May.   Admission fee: 7 euros Reduced fee: 3 euros for E.U. senior citizens (over 65 years old), students from countries outside the E.U.   Free entrance: visitors under 19 years old, students from E.U. countries, admission card holders (Free Entrance Card, Culture Card, ICOM, ICOMOS) journalists,, guides, soldiers. Entrance is free to all visitors on the following days: . 6 March (Memory of Melina Mercouri) . 18 April (International Monument Day) . 18 May (International Museum Day) . 5 June (World Environment Day) . the last weekend of September (European Days of Cultural Heritage) . 27 September (International Tourism Day) . Sundays in the period between 1 November and 31 March . Greek official holidays during which the Museum remains open: 6 January, Orthodox Good Friday (12:00 – 17:00), Orthodox Easter Saturday and Monday, Orthodox Monday of the Holy Spirit, 15 August, 28 October. . the first Sunday of April, May, June, September and October (in case this is an official holiday, it is the second Sunday of that month).   Entrance is free on the days celebrating Open Days and the European Spring of the Museums, ccording to the dates set each year.  Clearance of the galleries begins 20 minutes before closing time. Essential work may necessitate closing galleries without previous notice. National Archaeological Museum 44 Patission Street, Athens 10682 Offices: 1 Tositsa Street, Athens 10682, Greece Tel:. +30 210 8217724         +30 210 8217717 Fax: +30 210 8213573         +30 210 8230800 e-mail: eam@culture.gr Director: Dr Nikolaos Kaltsas

  Goulandris Museum of Natural History is a public welfare institution, devoted to study, conservation and protection of natural environment.

Ever since its foundation it has mapped a pioneer route, a new rapprochement between man and natural environment. It has developed efficient scientific activities for the confrontation and inhibition of environmental threats against the planet and for the rehabilitation of natural resources for the preservation of life. In the meantime, it has formulated a new education of general interest for the re-integration of people into the functions and economy of Nature.

With the responsibility of the Greek geography, the Greeks’ educational space, the Institution develops international activity pursuing our historical and cultural tradition and ecumenical consideration of the world.

The Museum works for the preservation of our natural environment, by:

• Daily teaching hundreds of visitors, mainly children of school age.
• Distributing knowledge into society through meetings, conferences, publications and exhibitions.
• Developing high-technology workshops focusing on research of the life-giving natural resources: soil, water and air, in relation to nutrition and health.
• Cooperating with other scientific centres and institutes in Europe and the USA, in the field of biotechnology, soil ecology and analytical chemistry.

Our vision is to be a dynamic constantly active and culture-triggering workshop

Visiting the Museum

The physical visit to GNHM is a multi-dimensional experience bringing visitors in touch with the kingdom of plants and animals and introducing them in an understandable and scientifically documented way to the function of vegetable and animal world, to the interdependence and balance of ecosystems. From 1975 until today, more than 3 million visitors, 70% of which were young people, passed the gates of the Museum and visited the exhibitions it has hosted.

http://www.gnhm.gr/MuseumSelect.aspx?lang=en-Us

G.N.H.M. is on: 13 Levidou street, Kifissia, tel: 210 8015870

working hours: Weekdays: 9 a.m. – 2.30 p.m. Sundays: 10 a.m – 2.30 m.m.

 
Gaia Center demonstrates to visitors the way planet earth has been functioning for millions of years and how it functions today. The “geosphere” is a hemispherical dome – monitor which shows the rotating planet in 225,000 high resolution images. It also presents the geological evolution of the planet from its creation until today. The exhibition is conceived and implemented by the London Museum of  Natural History.

GAIA is on: 100 Othonos street, Kifissia

Telephone office: 210-8015870

working hours: Weekdays: 9 a.m. – 2.30 p.m., Sundays: 10 a.m – 2.30 p.m

http://www.gnhm.gr/GaiaDefault.aspx?selItem=122&fCode=f13

Anyway, if you call 2103229031 you will get all the info you need about the museum. The main building is open Tues.-Sun.9am-2pm.