Altes Museum

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The Altes Museum is one of the state museums of Berlin and is located on Museum Island. The building was designed and built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and is considered the pinnacle of his work and the most important building in the Neo-Classical style.

The 18 Ionic pillars, the wide portico, and the large flight of stairs are special features of this design, which until then had only been seen in buildings designed for the ruling classes. The inscription on the front reads: "Friedrich Wilhelm III founded this museum in 1828 for the study of all kinds of antiquities and of the liberal arts". Inside is a rotunda, further emphasising the museum's role as a temple of art.

The Altes Museum was built between 1823 and 1830 and is now a listed building. When it was first opened, it was called the "new museum". After the construction of today's Neues Museum, it officially bore the name Royal Museum until 1945, but had come to be known as the Altes Museum (old museum).

Since July 2010, it has housed the Prussian state collections of Roman and Etruscan antiquities upstairs and the Greek collection on the main floor.