Pergamon Museum in Berlin: description, history, interesting facts and reviews

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

It is impossible to be in Berlin and not visit its main attraction, located in the heart of the city on the river Spree. The Pergamon Museum is a luxurious collection of masterpieces of monumental architecture of the past. During a tour of this complex, you can travel to the ancient Greek state and the Roman Empire. All exhibits are life-sized ancient buildings, and each of them has its own amazing legend about its excavation and restoration.

Construction

In the place where the building of the complex now rises, in 1877, the famous engineer and part-time archaeologist K. Human discovered a stunning find, which is a great monument of antiquity. It was an altar from the Hellenistic period depicting the battle of the gods with the giants.

Its large frieze is 120 meters long, so the Commission on Values could not find a room that could house this amazing work of ancient sculptors within its walls. For this reason, it was decided to build the Pergamon Museum, which got its name in honor of histhe main pride - the famous altar.

Later the building of the complex had to be expanded, as objects found during excavations in Babylon, Egypt and Uruk were added to this exhibit. In 1930, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin was completely built and four halls with interesting expositions were opened to the public.

During the Second World War, the complex was seriously destroyed, so most of its exhibits were moved from there to a safer place. Only in the sixties of the last century, the funds were returned to the museum, but not completely. Currently, a significant part of his collections remains in Moscow and the Hermitage.

Description

Today it is considered to be the most famous attraction in the capital of Germany, the Pergamon Museum. The Museum Island, where this complex is located, is visited annually by more than one and a half million tourists. Of course, this cultural excursion is of great interest not only for the adult public, but also for schoolchildren. Young visitors can in this place touch many elements of the ancient era, which they heard only in the lessons.

The Pergamon Museum is divided into three main departments dedicated to Antique collections, Asian art and cultural values of Islamic peoples. These collections cover the period from the sixth century BC to the nineteenth century of the modern era.

After such a cultural program, you can still visit the souvenir shop located in the spacious and bright building of the complex or take a walk alongbeautiful green park adjacent to the museum.

What to see

It is best to take the whole day to explore the galleries of this complex. In the section of the antique collection you can see exhibits relating to the eras of Ancient Rome and Greece, as well as to the Cypriot and Etruscan collections. The pearl of this exposition is the Pergamum altar with a marble staircase, which has already been mentioned above. In addition, the gates of the Miletus Market are still located here and are a vivid example of ancient Roman architecture.

The exposition dedicated to the art of Asian countries has more than 260,000 items relating to the culture of the disappeared empires of the East and covering a historical era of six thousand years. The main value of this collection is the Babylonian Gate, created in honor of the goddess Ishtar. They are made in the form of a huge brick arch, decorated with images of various mythical animals. In addition, there are the remains of the throne room of the Babylonian kings and fragments of temples from Uruk, the city of the Sumerians.

In the next building of the museum complex there is a collection of artistic values of the peoples of Islam, who once lived on the territory from India to Spain itself, from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries. Here are stunning artifacts from the era of the Mongol Empire, as well as a variety of products of weavers of those times. The attention of all tourists is attracted by the huge frieze that once adorned the Umayyad castle. It was carved by ancient stone cutters in the 8th century and almost completely destroyed, butmuseum workers were able to restore it and now everyone can see it by visiting this complex.

This museum presents exhibits that are not found in any other cultural institution in the world, allowing the public to touch the era of the ancient world.

Visitor experiences

All tourists who have visited this amazing complex leave only rave reviews about it. The Pergamon Museum, in their opinion, is the most interesting place in Berlin. Most people advise starting their tour of the complex with its main exhibits: the Miletus Market Gate, the altar, the procession road and the friezes from Mstatta.

Thanks to such amazing expositions, many visitors claim that it is the Pergamon Museum (Berlin) that surpasses all similar institutions in the city. Reviews about it say that the excursions of this complex are real journeys into antiquity.

Contact details

The Pergamon Museum starts its work at 10:00 am and ends at 18:00 pm. The complex works without days off and breaks. The entrance ticket costs twelve euros. This institution is located at the following address: Berlin, Bodestrasse 1-3.

You can get there using public transport: by metro, using the U-Bahn U6 line, by bus 200, 100 or 147, or by tram M1, M4, M6 and M5.

Interesting facts

It turns out that initially the very first building of the complex was built onlyfor one altar, which is currently under reconstruction until about 2019. But over time, objects of ancient antiquity were brought to this place in huge quantities, thanks to which such a large museum appeared.

Pergamon, undoubtedly, belongs to the leading place among many world-famous museum complexes. Therefore, while in Berlin, it is certainly worth visiting these richest collections of ancient antiquities.