Thursday, July 11, 2013

Athens Art Tour: National Archeological Museum and Byzantine and Christian Museum

Learn about Greek art and history on a half-day tour of two must-visit Athens museums: Byzantine and Christian Museum and the National Archeological Museum. Led by an art-loving local guide, the tour introduces you to incredible pieces of religious art created during the Byzantine period, plus the different eras of Greek civilization. See mosaics, paintings, books and more on this exciting art history tour! All meals, public transport costs and entrance fees are at your own expense.

Meet your guide at Evangelismos metro station in central Athens, and then walk to the nearby Byzantine and Christian Museum. After paying your entrance fee direct, head inside and explore the incredible collection of antiquities, religious artifacts and paintings from the days of Byzantine Greece - the era that roughly stretched from 600 BC to the mid-15th century.

With some 25,000 artifacts on display, the museum is vast and knowing where to start can be bewildering! Let your guide introduce you to its best bits while learning about Greece during the Byzantine Empire. Highlights of the museum include a beautiful gallery of Coptic Christian paintings, mosaic icons inside the re-constructed Christian church, and a collection of medieval books. The building itself is both beautiful and historic too, having once been the palace of a Greek duchess.

Enjoy a break in the museum’s on-site cafe, and then take the metro with your guide to the National Archeological Museum - the largest archeological exhibition in Greece. Devoted to Ancient Greek art, the exhibition space comprises several spacious rooms featuring art from the Stone Age, Cycladic and Minoan eras as well as Classical and Hellenistic works. Learn about Greek civilization throughout the different artistic periods while browsing the exhibitions, admiring sculptures, paintings and metalwork.

Your tour finishes inside the National Archeological Museum, but you can stay inside after your tour, if you wish.

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