Altes Museum

The Altes Museum, built between 1825 and 1830 by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, houses Berlin’s Antikensammlung, featuring ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts.

Planning your visit

The Altes Museum was the first public museum in Prussia, opened in 1830, and Karl Friedrich Schinkel's building is among the most important works of neoclassical architecture anywhere — a long Ionic colonnade of eighteen columns facing the Lustgarten, with a domed rotunda inside modelled on the Pantheon and lined with classical sculpture.

The building was gutted by fire in the war and rebuilt, and the rotunda remains the finest interior on Museum Island.

It holds the Antikensammlung, Berlin's classical collection: Greek sculpture and vases, Etruscan bronzes and jewellery, Roman portraiture including a famous head of Caesar, and an important coin cabinet. The Greek material on the ground floor is the strength.

It is the least visited of the five Museum Island institutions, which given the architecture is a considerable advantage — the rotunda is often near-empty.

A combined Museum Island ticket covers it alongside the others.

Bookable options are entrance tickets. Current availability is listed below.