Altes Museum

The Altes Museum is a neoclassical museum on Berlin’s Museum Island, completed in 1830 and originally built as the Royal Museum. It is one of the earliest public museums in Germany and a central building on the island.

The ground floor circulation and the museum’s large rotunda are the architectural highlights; exhibition space concentrates on classical antiquities, with galleries displaying Greek and Roman sculpture and ceramics. The building’s colonnaded exterior and central dome are visually prominent from the Lustgarten and the Spree river.

Commissioned and designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel between 1825 and 1830, the museum opened to display royal collections of antiquities and later became part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Its role and collections have evolved through 19th and 20th century reorganizations of Berlin’s museum holdings.

It sits on Museum Island in central Berlin, adjacent to the Spree river and near Unter den Linden. The location is within walking distance of Berlin Cathedral and other state museums on the island.

• Museum Island: Located on Berlin's Museum Island, part of the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble of museums in the city center.
• Architecture: Neoclassical building designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and completed in 1830, notable for its colonnaded facade.

What to See #

• Rotunda: Central circular rotunda with a domed ceiling that anchors the exhibition layout and was part of the original 19th century design.
• Antikensammlung: Upper-floor galleries that traditionally house the Antikensammlung, the Berlin collection of classical Greek and Roman antiquities.