Museum of the Ancient Agora

Housed in the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos, the Museum of the Ancient Agora displays artifacts from the Athenian Agora, offering insights into ancient Greek history and democracy.

Planning your visit

The Museum of the Ancient Agora is inside the Stoa of Attalos, and the building is itself the exhibit. The original two-storey colonnaded hall was built around 150 BC as a gift from a king of Pergamon and destroyed in AD 267; the American School of Classical Studies rebuilt it completely between 1953 and 1956 using ancient techniques and marble from the original quarries, and it is the only fully reconstructed ancient building in Athens.

Walking its shaded double colonnade gives a genuine sense of how such spaces functioned — as sheltered public rooms for commerce and conversation, which is precisely what the Agora was for.

The collection covers Athenian democracy in practice: ostraka, the pottery shards on which citizens wrote names to banish politicians, with Themistocles and Aristides among them; the kleroteria used to allocate jury service by lot; official measures and weights; and everyday pottery and objects.

Bookable options include tours combining the Acropolis, the Agora and the museum. Current availability is listed below.