Archaeological Museum of Olympia

The museum at Olympia holds what was dug out of the sanctuary next door, and the centre of it is the sculpture from the Temple of Zeus: the two pediments, one showing the chariot race of Pelops and the other the battle of Lapiths and Centaurs, reassembled and set out at the scale they were carved for. The Hermes attributed to Praxiteles stands in its own room. The bronze collection is very large.

Background

The original building opened in 1888 as the first Greek museum beyond Athens. Two German architects and archaeologists already excavating the site took charge of designing and building it, with 220,000 drachmas from the banker Andreas Syggros. An earthquake damaged it in 1954, and a new museum followed in 1982. Since 2004 the old building has covered the story of the original Olympic games. The present museum has twelve exhibition rooms arranged by theme and by age, with finds from prehistory to Roman times, among them an oenochoe once owned by Phidias. A bronze griffin's head taken from the museum between 1930 and 1936 ended up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which agreed in 2025 to return it.

Source: Wikipedia, "Archaeological Museum of Olympia"

The main sights

• The temple pediments - the Zeus sculpture reassembled at full scale.
• The Hermes - the marble attributed to Praxiteles in its own room.
• The Nike of Paionios - the figure from the sanctuary's open ground.
• The bronzes - the votive metalwork left at the sanctuary over centuries.

When to go

April to June and September to October are the pleasant months. Summer heat at Olympia is severe and the site fills. Mornings are quietest.

Practical notes

Coach groups arrive together and the pediment hall becomes crowded. Summer heat makes the whole visit hard work. The museum and the site together take a full morning and tickets are usually combined.

Nearby

Ancient Olympia is alongside, and the village is nearby.

Key facts