At a glance
🎟️ 12€
Reduced €9. Free every Thursday from 18:00 to midnight.
🕙 From 10:00
Thursday and Saturday until midnight. Closed on Mondays.
🚇 Syntagma
Line 2, then a 7-minute walk beside the National Garden.
⏱️ 90 minutes
For the essentials. Two and a half hours if the costumes and embroidery draw you in.
A house that became a museum
Antonis Benakis (1873–1954) was born in Alexandria and collected art from a young age. In 1930 he gave his collection to the Greek state together with the family’s neoclassical house opposite the National Garden, and the museum opened the following year. Later extensions added rooms without erasing the feel of a home. You do not walk down one straight corridor of history. You climb stairs, pass through smaller rooms, and the atmosphere changes on every floor.
The mansion was the Benaki family home. The entrance is on the corner with Vasilissis Sofias.
Opposite the National Garden, seven minutes from Syntagma.
Photos: Joyofmuseums (CC BY-SA 4.0), Dimboukas (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
From the bottom up
Ground floor: from prehistory to the Romans. Cycladic figurines, vases, bronze helmets and jewellery. Do not hurry past the gold wreaths: the leaves are paper-thin and were made to accompany the dead. That is where you see how personal an ancient object can be.
Byzantium and the post-Byzantine centuries. The icons hang close together, in softer light. Look for the works of the Cretan School and stop at the faces, not just the gold backgrounds. You can see clearly how the icon moves from workshop to workshop and changes without losing its roots.
The Kozani room. On the upper floors you will find the whole reception room of an 18th-century mansion from Kozani: a carved wooden ceiling, coloured glass windows, low divans all around. Most people walk through quickly, because it is not a «famous» exhibit. Sit for two minutes. History steps out of the display cases and into a room where people once received their guests.
Costumes and 1821. Bridal and festive clothes from all over Greece, embroidery, silverware. Further up, portraits of fighters, weapons and documents from the Revolution and the first years of the state. The story is not only heroic: it also shows how the new country shaped its own image.
From prehistory to the Romans, in rooms with natural light.
Icons of the Cretan School and Byzantine works, in low light.
A whole 18th-century mansion room, moved piece by piece.
Carved wood, gold and red. Most people never look up.
Bridal and festive clothes from villages and islands all over Greece.
Portraits of fighters, weapons and documents from the birth of the Greek state.
Photos: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra (CC BY 2.0), Palickap (CC BY-SA 4.0), Yair-haklai (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
💡 The best time: Thursday evening
Every Thursday from 18:00 to midnight entry to the permanent collection is free. The building changes when the light fades: the rooms grow quiet, the icons glow under the lamps and nobody is in a hurry. Go after 19:00, when the first wave of visitors has left, and finish with something on the terrace.
The rooftop terrace
The café-restaurant on the top floor has a terrace above the trees of the National Garden. From there you see the Acropolis and Lycabettus. You do not need a meal. A coffee after the galleries is enough to let what you saw settle. On Thursday and Saturday evenings, when the museum stays open late, the terrace is one of the quietest spots with a view in the centre.
Tickets and opening hours 2026
| Days | Hours |
|---|---|
| Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday | 10:00–18:00 |
| Thursday, Saturday | 10:00–24:00 |
| Monday | Closed |
General admission costs €12 and the reduced ticket €9. Young children get in free. The permanent collection is free for everyone every Thursday 18:00–24:00. The Benaki is a private museum: it does not follow the free Sundays of the state museums and was never part of the combined ticket. Temporary exhibitions often have their own ticket.
- Photos: allowed without flash, tripod or selfie stick.
- Accessibility: lifts to every floor.
- Bags: large backpacks go to the cloakroom at the entrance.
The columns of the façade. The entrance is on the corner with Koumbari Street.
Photo: Nikos.papakyritsis (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
The other Benaki buildings
The Benaki is not just the house on Koumbari Street. If you like it, keep these in mind:
- Pireos 138: temporary exhibitions in a former industrial building, often contemporary art, architecture and design.
- Museum of Islamic Art: in Thissio, near Kerameikos, with ceramics and textiles from Spain to India. In the basement, a section of the ancient Themistoclean Wall survives.
- Ghika Gallery: the home and studio of the painter Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, on Kriezotou Street.
- Toy Museum: in Palaio Faliro, a good idea if you are travelling with children.
Costumes of the Greeks of Cappadocia, from an exhibition in the Pireos Street building.
Two neoclassical houses on the corner of Agion Asomaton and Dipylou, next to Kerameikos.
Fatimid lustreware, one of the most beautiful pieces in the collection.
In the basement you can see a section of ancient Athens’ Themistoclean Wall.
Toys from all over the world, in Palaio Faliro.
Photos: Catlemur (CC BY-SA 4.0), George E. Koronaios (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
🚇 How to get there from Ioulianou 50
The Benaki is in Kolonaki, on the far side of Syntagma. Allow about 25 minutes door to door.
- Ioulianou 50 → Victoria station: 3 minutes on foot.
- Line 1 (green), towards Piraeus: one stop, to Omonia.
- Line 2 (red), towards Elliniko: Panepistimio, and at the second stop get off at Syntagma.
- Syntagma → museum: exit towards Parliament and walk 7 minutes along Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, with the National Garden on your right. The museum is on the corner with Koumbari Street, on your left.
🚇 Ioulianou 50 → Benaki Museum by metro
Line 1 to Omonia, Line 2 to Syntagma, and a 7-minute walk along Vasilissis Sofias.
If you feel like walking, it is 2.5 km from Ioulianou 50, about 35 minutes, via Patision Street, Panepistimiou Street and Syntagma. On a Thursday evening the walk back through the centre stays lively until late.
Where it is in relation to the apartment
📍 From Angels Athens to the Benaki Museum
See at a glance how to get there from the apartment at Ioulianou 50. Drag the map and zoom in for details.
Frequently asked questions
Benaki or the National Archaeological Museum?
They do different jobs. The National Archaeological Museum is antiquity in depth. The Benaki is Greece as one continuous story, from antiquity to the 20th century, on the scale of a house. If you only have time for one, choose by what draws you.
Is it worth it if I do not like ancient things?
Yes. The upper floors, with the Kozani room, the costumes and 1821, have nothing to do with antiquity and are the liveliest part.
What can I combine on the same walk?
The Museum of Cycladic Art is two minutes further up, on Neofytou Douka Street. The Byzantine and Christian Museum is 10 minutes further down Vasilissis Sofias. In between, the National Garden for a breath of shade.
How much time do I need?
Ninety minutes for the essentials. Two and a half to three hours if you want to see every floor calmly and sit on the terrace.
— Kathy
