Altes Museum

The Altes Museum stands at the heart of Berlin’s Museum Island and was the first public museum in Berlin, opening in 1830. Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, its monumental neoclassical façade and grand rotunda were conceived to make the royal Prussian collections accessible to the public. The building itself is one of the landmarks of 19th-century museum architecture. Today, the museum houses the Collection of Classical Antiquities, with works from ancient Greece, Etruria and the Roman Empire. Sculptures, painted vases, architectural fragments and ancient coins are displayed within Schinkel’s carefully designed interiors, creating a direct connection between the architecture and the ancient cultures represented inside.