Description of the attraction
The area between the branches of the Spree and Lustgarten is called Museum Island. Here, in several museums, masterpieces of world art from ancient times to the twentieth century are collected.
In 1830, the building of the Old Museum was built here, decorated with 18 Ionic columns and a wide external staircase. The exposition of the museum contains a part of the collection of the National Gallery (dating back to the 20th century), a cabinet of graphics with engravings from the 15th-20th centuries and the creative heritage of Adolf von Menzel, K. F. Schinkel and G. Shadov.
The Old National Gallery contains paintings and sculptural works by masters of the 18th-19th centuries, including works by Cezanne, Degas, Rodin, Rauch, Shadov and many others.
The Pergamon Museum was built in 1912-1930. The main exhibit is the Pergamon Altar, the altar of Zeus, decorated with a sculptural frieze (2nd century BC), found in the vicinity of Smyrna at the end of the 19th century. The Pergamon Museum also houses the Ishtar Gate, covered with dark blue and yellow glazed tiles. They were erected under the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 580 BC. The Islamic Museum is also located here, where you can see the facade and fragments of the Mshatta castle, Persian carpets and a collection of miniatures.
The building of the Bode Museum houses several museums: the Museum of Ancient Egypt with a huge collection of ancient papyri; Museum of Early Christian and Byzantine Art; Picture Gallery, Museum of Sculpture and Numismatic Office.
