Benaki Museum

Vas. Sofias Ave and Koumbari St, Athens
mid-19th century, 1910, 1929-30, 1969-73, 1989-97

Architects
Anastasios Metaxas (1862-1937),
Em. Vourekas (1905-1992)
Alexandros Kalligas (1932)
Stefanos Kalligas



The Benaki Museum is housed in a neoclassical mansion in the historic centre of Athens opposite the National Gardens.
The Museum is a composite architectural group that resulted from successive additions. Its core was the 19th century, discreetly-sized Harokopos residence. When the family of Emmanuel Benakis settled definitively in Athens in 1910, this mansion was enlarged by the addition of a ballroom and the necessary auxiliary spaces. At that time it was refurbished inside and out by the well known architect and restorer of the Panathenian Stadium, Anastasios Metaxas. In 1929/30, another wing was added in order to transform the Benakis residence into a museum.
Then three more additions were built. The first was in 1954-56 in order to house the historic objects related to Eleftherios Venizelos on the ground floor, and the collection of Damianos Kyriazis on the first floor. The second addition was made in 1968 in order to exhibit the major bequest by Eleni Stathatou on the ground floor. In 1969-73 another new wing was added, at the expense of the Stamatios Dekozis-Vouros Foundation, designed by architect Emmanuel Vourekas, which included a lecture hall on the ground floor, a temporary exhibits hall on the first and a snack bar on the roof.
The building’s elevations are divided into base, trunk and crown. The arrangement of the openings is axial and symmetrical. The façade is dominated by a porch with Doric columns and the main openings of the first floor are emphasised by supporting columns in the form of draped female figures (caryatids) and a pedimental crown. The marble adornments on the elevations are governed by a simple eclecticist aesthetic that can also be seen in the interior of the building, particularly in the entrance hall.
The entire Benaki Museum complex was modernised by a radical reorganisation of its interior and the addition of a new wing at the back of the lot, that cannot be seen from the façade. This project, which was designed by the architect Alekos S. Kalligas, began in 1989 and was completed in 1997. The utilisable area of the Museum was doubled, and now is about 7000 m2. Apart from the two basements of the storage areas in the new wing, it is divided into five interior levels. The semi-basement contains the library, the administration, the documentation Section and the offices of the various sections. On the second floor and the roof with the snack bar, a small auditorium was created for electronic multimedia and a large independent hall for multiple uses for various types of events. The rest of the building houses the Greek collection alone, thus offering a comprehensive picture of the history of the Greeks over time.

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