Byzantine and Christian Museum

Housed in the Villa Ilissia, built in the 1840s for the Duchess of Plaisance, this is the richest collection of Byzantine art in Greece: some 30,000 objects of which around 3,000 are shown, arranged underground in galleries dug beneath the villa's garden. The displays run chronologically from the late Roman world through the rise of Christianity, the iconoclast crisis and the mature Byzantine centuries to the post-Byzantine painters of Crete. Highlights include wall paintings lifted whole from ruined churches and reassembled, a double-sided icon of the Virgin, early Coptic textiles and a reconstructed early Christian basilica. The garden itself is free to enter and one of the pleasantest quiet corners in central Athens.

History

The museum was founded in 1914 and first housed on the first floor of the Academy, later moving to the Ilissia Villa of the Duchesse de Plaisance, a building of 1848. It holds more than 25,000 exhibits, icons, scriptures, frescoes, pottery, textiles and manuscripts from the 3rd century AD to the late Middle Ages, and in June 2004, for its 90th anniversary, it reopened after a thorough renovation and the addition of a new wing (Wikipedia, Byzantine and Christian Museum).

What's there

• The icon galleries - painted panels from the sixth century onward.
• The rescued wall paintings - frescoes removed from collapsing churches and rebuilt.
• The basilica reconstruction - an early Christian church interior recreated at scale.
• The villa garden - courtyard, fountain and shade, open without a ticket.

When to go

Year-round; the galleries are underground and cool, which makes them a sensible refuge in a hot Athenian afternoon. Allow more time if temporary exhibitions are on.

Practical notes

Byzantine art is repetitive by design, and visitors expecting classical marbles may find several rooms of icons heavy going. Labelling is good but dense. The scale is large enough that a targeted visit beats a complete one.

Nearby

The Museum of Cycladic Art is a short walk north; the National Gallery stands just east along the same avenue.

Key facts