PERGAMON MUSEUM

Description

Essentials about the Pergamon Museum in brief

For most visitors, the Pergamon Museum is the museum highlight on Berlin’s Museum Island and the number one visitor magnet among all Berlin museums. With over one million visitors annually, it is the most visited Berlin museum and even the most visited German art museum. This is not surprising, as the Pergamon Museum houses some of Germany’s greatest art treasures in its three sections, the Collection of Classical Antiquities, the Museum of the Ancient Near East and the Museum of Islamic Art.

The highlights of the Pergamon Museum

First and foremost, of course, the monumental Pergamon Altar from antiquity is the highlight of the museum. Visitors can climb the steps of the original altar as they did more than 2,000 years ago and marvel at this highlight of Hellenistic art. In addition to the Pergamon Altar, the 17-meter-high Market Gate of Miletus and and the magnificent Ishtar Gate form the core of the exhibition.

The history of the Pergamon Museum

Historically, the foundation of the Pergamon Museum goes back to the excavation successes of German archaeologists in the 19th century. After the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann uncovered the legendary Troy, dozens of men of his guild set out for Babylon, Uruk, Assur and Egypt to do the same. Their many finds were exhibited on Berlin’s Museum Island in a predecessor building to the Pergamon Museum. But after only a short time, the space was no longer sufficient, which is why a new building with an even larger exhibition area was finally erected on the same site between 1910 and 1930.