Altes Museum

As you step into the museum, you're greeted by the stunning Rotunda, an awe-inspiring space modeled after the ancient Pantheon in Rome. The circular hall, crowned with a glass dome, is lined with towering Corinthian columns and classical statues, setting the stage for the artistic grandeur within.

While the famous bust of Nefertiti is housed in the neighboring Neues Museum, the Altes Museum holds a remarkable collection of Egyptian art, including portraits of her contemporaries. The hauntingly lifelike bust of Queen Cleopatra VII, carved in black basalt, reveals the artistic mastery of Ptolemaic sculptors and offers a rare glimpse into the face of the last pharaoh of Egypt.

The museum’s Collection of Classical Antiquities is home to the 'Amphora', a masterpiece of Greek red-figure pottery. This nearly flawless vessel, dating back to 500 BCE, showcases a single, elegantly poised figure against a stark black background—a revolutionary style that forever changed the aesthetics of ancient ceramics.

One of the museum’s most prized possessions is the Praying Boy, a strikingly naturalistic bronze sculpture from Hellenistic Greece. With his outstretched arms and slightly bowed head, the figure exudes an air of divine contemplation, its fluid form and expressive details making it one of the finest surviving examples of ancient bronze craftsmanship.

The Altes Museum offers an immersive step into the Roman world with its Hall of Busts (Büste-Saal), a long, stately room lined with the visages of emperors, generals, and philosophers. The sheer presence of these finely chiseled marble figures—some with stern gazes, others with subtle smirks—offers a strikingly lifelike glimpse into the personalities and power of ancient Rome’s elites.

Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and opened in 1830, the Altes Museum is not just a home for antiquities but a historical monument in its own right. Its neoclassical facade, inspired by Greek temples, represents one of the earliest examples of museum architecture dedicated to public education and remains a masterpiece of Berlin’s cultural heritage.