The New Acropolis Museum

In a lavish ceremony on June 20, 2009, the New Acropolis Museum opened its doors to the public. Designed by Bernard Tschumi (and Michalis Fotiadis), the 21,000-sq.-m (226,000-sq.-ft.) glass-and-concrete museum is stunning. The treasures it displays (most of them in storage for almost 200 years) are breathtaking. At once awe inspiring and humbling, the museum has over 4,000 treasures on display (10 times more than the previous Acropolis museum), making this the must-see museum for anyone.

Metal ramps take visitors to the ongoing excavations in the museum's lower levels, where visitors can peer through glass panels at an ancient Athenian neighborhood (where houses, baths, shops, workshops, and roads have been thus far uncovered) and an early Christian settlement.

The artifacts, statues, sculptures and free-standing objects that used to adorn the sacred rock (plus some little known treasures from the Temple of Artemis Brauronia) are all lovingly and stunningly displayed throughout the first two floors, preparing visitors for the final moment when they ascend to the top floor, the Parthenon Gallery. The glassy gallery is different than the previous museum floors. Rotated 23 degrees off its axis to mirror the layout of the Parthenon -- visible throughout the gallery -- it handsomely displays what remains in Greece of the original Parthenon sculptures and frieze -- 36 of the 115 original panels, alongside stark white plaster casts of the originals in London. It is here where one gets the full picture; the grandeur of the past, the importance of this incredible legacy and the ugly truth that this is a work of art that has been looted in a grotesquely selfish manner. Even though fragments of the Parthenon frieze were returned in early 2009 from Italy, Germany, and the Vatican, they are merely fragments of the whole of a spectacular work of art. The missing marbles break apart a poem carved in stone as a unity that tells a single story. There are also missing body parts, turning the splendid into the grotesque -- the goddess Iris has her head in Athens and her body in London; Poseidon's rear is in Athens while his torso is in London, and so on and so forth.

As magnificent as the museum is, both in its design and in its treasures, one cannot walk away without an even deeper appreciation of a glorious era in the history of man. Yet one also leaves with a sense of sadness knowing that this tremendous work of art has been looted, vandalized, and ravaged far too many times in its history. We want to believe it is only a matter of time until the British Museum undoes an old wrong.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

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