Pergamonmuseum

The Pergamonmuseum will remain closed until further notice due to extensive construction work. The Panorama is the only part of the museum that will remain open during the renovation.

The Pergamon Museum was designed by Alfred Messel; its construction was overseen by Ludwig Hoffmann and lasted twenty years, from 1910 to 1930. A smaller building initially stood on the same site for a just few years before being torn down. It housed the important excavation finds unearthed by the Berlin museums, such as the frieze panels from the Pergamon Altar, reclaimed from the earth in digs that lasted from 1878 to 1886. Inadequate foundations, however, soon resulted in the building becoming structurally unstable and it had to be demolished.

The new, larger Pergamon Museum was built as a three-wing complex. The museum now houses three of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s collections: the Collection of Classical Antiquities, Museum of Ancient Near East, and the Museum of Islamic Art. The impressive reconstructions of massive archaeological structures – the Pergamon Altar, Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way from Babylon, and the Mshatta Facade – have made the Pergamonmuseum famous throughout the world, with the result that it is the most visited museum at the Staatliche Museen and in Germany as a whole.

As part of a so-called master plan for the Museum Island, the Pergamon Museum has been undergoing section-by-section renovation since 2013. From October 23, 2023, the museum will be completely closed to visitors. Further information about which museum areas are currently closed can be found here.