The Acropolis Museum Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary by Opening a New Extension

The new section spans a four-thousand-square-metre site where the ruins of an ancient neighbourhood are located. The remains date from the Roman and Byzantine periods.

The excavations of the Acropolis Museum extension (pictured) have been open to the public since June 2019. From actor.gr 

The Acropolis Museum in Athens is young in age, yet thoroughly established. Together with the Acropolis itself, in recent years it has become the most visited archaeological site in all of Greece. And since one does not turn ten every day, this 2019 the institution has decided to celebrate its anniversary in grand style: by opening a new extension covering a surface of 4,000 square metres, where visitors can explore the remains of an ancient Athenian neighbourhood. Most of the ruins are dated to the Roman and Byzantine periods, and alongside them stand informative panels with images showing what the houses and streets looked like when everyday life teemed within them. According to sources at the museum, the archaeological remains include baths, hot-water conduits, public latrines, dwellings, wells and artisans’ workshops.

Presentation of the new extension of the Acropolis Museum

Although most of the structures and installations are dated to later periods, according to Dimitris Pantermalis, the museum’s director, remains made during the era of Classical Greece also survive. The site that can currently be visited was discovered between 1997 and 2004, during the excavation works intended to lay the museum’s foundations. When construction of the centre was completed, it was decided to leave the excavation in view; under a glass floor located at the entrance, that is. Ten years have now passed, during which the excavation has gradually been equipped with the proper conditions to be made accessible to the public. This extension will be crucial to increasing the great volume of visits that the Acropolis Museum enjoys today: since its opening in June 2009, more than fourteen and a half million visitors have already crossed its threshold.

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