Benaki Islamic Art Museum in Athens
Written: Mar 01 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Some beautiful Islamic Art on display
Cons: Not as comprehensive as some other museums I've visited, but very compact and manageable.
The Bottom Line: A nice museum for anyone interested in Islamic art, and it makes a good diversion from looking at piles of Ancient Greek rubble!
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| cr01's Full Review: Benaki Islamic Art Museum Athens |
Given the ancient and bitter animosity between Greeks and Turks, one of the more surprising and rewarding museums in Athens is the Islamic Art Museum. The museum is part of the Benaki collection, largely pulled together in the 1800's, and currently housed on five small floors in the centre of historic Athens.
Entrance to the museum is five Euros, and it took us around three hours to go through the full exhibition. The museum, although housed in an old merchant house, is bright and modern, with a lift, and great lighting for the pieces on display.
If nothing else, it's worth stopping at the tiny and basic rooftop restaurant for a great open-air view over the Ancient Greek Cemetery and town walls at Keramikos. Make sure you visit the ancient cemetery rather than make this your only view: from this height, unless you know the lines of the roads, it simply looks like you are looking down on piles of ancient rubble!
We also took a wander down to the cellar for a couple of minutes to look at some more remains of the town wall under the building.
Athens Islamic Art Museum: I'm in Tile Heaven!
I always love the bright and intricate patterns in Islamic art and I found the ceramic tiles the most interesting and stunningly beautiful, with some dating back over 500 years. Many of the tiles are individually crafted and painted, and so are unique. Visitors can take photographs as long as they avoid using flash, so I was in seventh heaven.
The collection also contains some wooden carvings (largely doors and doorways), prayer carpets and a large collection of beautiful bowls from different Islamic regions and periods. Unfortunately, the bowls suffer a little from being grouped together in large display cases; there are almost too many to see and appreciate. I also marvelled at the detail on the enamelled handles and scabbards of the swords and daggers on display in one case.
On one of the floors is a complete mock up of a 500-year-old Egyptian reception room, complete with a water feature. It rather reminded me of some of the rooms I had seen in Moorish Granada. The room is behind a thin sheet of voile, and with the running water, I found it a relaxing presentation, and a good place to linger a while.
Museum display descriptions are in Greek and English, and they contained enough information for the casual visitor.
The collection isn't as comprehensive (or extensively displayed in type and age order) as some other Islamic Art collections I've seen (the huge collection in the ceramic museum in Barcelona is a much larger and meatier collection for example). However, I didn't need to give up in desperation of the sheer volume of pieces as I have done with more nominally impressive collections. In any case, the Athens Islamic Art Museum has enough good quality pieces to make a visit worthwhile.
Athens Islamic Art Museum: Creepy Ambience!
The museum was almost empty when we visited, although we had to keep a move on to avoid a group of sullen Greek teenagers on a school trip. I could see the kids using the international language of the teenager: slouching steps, hunched shoulders and rolling angry eyes. It's good to see that teenagers the world over are mightily bored by museums!
To give the displays a little more ambiance, the museum played some slightly sinister sounding eastern music. I'm not sure that it was the most positive thing the museum could have done in these mistrustful times.
I liked the actual room displays much better; as I mentioned, a whole entrance courtyard from a house in Egypt is on display, and on other floors, there were some traditionally dressed women manikins, draped from head to toe in black cloth, and dotted around for atmosphere. I certainly felt like we were trespassing into someone's private quarters on some of the floors, so it was certainly atmospheric enough.
Likewise, while most of the delicate pots and dangerous daggers were safely kept in locked display cases, I liked the tiles, carpets and wooden carvings simply being out in the open. While I would never touch such items (imagine the damage if every visitor did that?), it gave the pieces a more natural feel.
To sum up, while we primarily visited Athens for its Ancient Greek artefacts, I was pleased we spent a little of our time at the Islamic Art Museum, and found it a very worthwhile detour.
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cr01 asserts his right to be associated as the author of this review -2009-
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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cr01
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Member: Chris
Location: Yorkshire, England
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