Museum Island

Why go

The site reads as an architectural sequence even when individual museums have different access conditions. It is so called for the complex of five internationally significant museums, all part of the Berlin State Museums, that occupy the island's northern part: The Altes Museum (Old Museum) completed on the orders of Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1830.

What to look for

• Five museum buildings form a UNESCO-listed ensemble between the Spree and Kupfergraben.
• The site reads as an architectural sequence even when individual museums have different access conditions.

The full story

The Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) completed in 1876, also according to designs by Friedrich August Stüler, to host a collection of 19th-century art donated by banker Joachim H. Wagener The Bode Museum on the island's northern tip, opened in 1904 and then called Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. It exhibits the sculpture collections and late Antique and Byzantine art. The Pergamon Museum, the final museum of the complex, constructed in 1930. It contains multiple reconstructed immense and historically significant buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. In 1999, the museum complex was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. History A first exhibition hall was erected in 1797 at the suggestion of the archaeologist Aloys Hirt.

Useful to know

• Verify current opening hours, closures and timed-entry rules on the official visitor page before setting out.
• Allow extra time for security or ticketing when the visit includes an interior collection or viewing platform.

Your next visit

Estimated · Declared scenario and planning estimates; no live opening, weather, queue or booking service.