Beyond the Sacred Rock, Athens runs a second cultural circuit: Cycladic figurines that inspired Modigliani, a Renzo Piano opera house under a sloping park, and rebetiko sung in basements. Three days of the city's living art scene.
Reopened in 2021 after an eight-year, €60m rebuild that tripled its space. Four floors trace Greek painting from post-Byzantine icons through Gyzis, Lytras and Parthenis to Tsarouchis. Open 10:00–18:00, closed Tuesday; arrive at opening for empty galleries.
Nicholas Goulandris's collection of white marble figurines from 3200–2000 BC — the flat-faced forms Brancusi, Modigliani and Moore openly borrowed from. Housed in a 1985 Ioannis Vikelas building linked to the 1895 Stathatos Mansion by a glass corridor.
Three Danish-designed neoclassical buildings in a row: the Academy (Theophil Hansen, 1885) with its Ionic columns and Athena-Apollo pillars, the University (Christian Hansen, 1864) with a painted polychrome façade, and the National Library (1903).
Athens's longest-running contemporary gallery, founded 1977, on a quiet street below the Hill of the Nymphs. Shows Anselm Kiefer, Jannis Kounellis and Vlassis Caniaris alongside younger Greek artists. Tue–Fri 10:30–18:00, Sat 12:00–16:00.
Twelve centuries of Orthodox art in the 1848 Villa Ilissia, built for the Duchess of Plaisance. Subterranean galleries hold reconstructed church apses, the 14th-century double-sided Episkepsis icon and gold-thread epitaphioi. Open 08:30–15:30, closed Tuesday.
Reconstructed dressing rooms of Greek stage legends — Katina Paxinou, Melina Mercouri, Dimitris Horn — with costumes, masks and set maquettes from the Karolos Koun Art Theatre and the National Theatre's Epidaurus productions.
Antonis Benakis's neoclassical family house holds 20,000 objects across four floors: Fayum portraits, two full reception rooms from 18th-century Kozani mansions dismantled and rebuilt inside, and Byron-era memorabilia. Thu–Sat 10:00–18:00.
Renzo Piano's 2016 campus under a 10,000 m² artificial hill: the Greek National Opera, the National Library, and a ferro-cement canopy carrying photovoltaics. Free guided architecture tours run daily; the roof Lighthouse gives an Acropolis-to-Saronic-Gulf sightline.
The ancient potters' quarter and city cemetery, where the Dipylon and Sacred Gates opened onto the Panathenaic Way. Grave stelae with the Athenian bull of Dionysios, and the Oberländer Museum's Geometric vases. Open 08:00–17:00 in summer.
The neighbourhood's political murals change monthly: work by iNO, Sonke and WD (Wild Drawing) covers whole apartment gables. Mesolongiou pedestrian alley is the memorial to Alexis Grigoropoulos; Strefi Hill gives the district's rooftop view.
Fivos Anoyanakis donated 1,200 instruments — bagpipe-like tsampouna, Cretan lyra, santouri, laouto — displayed with headphones playing field recordings of each. Housed in the 1842 Lassanis mansion with a courtyard used for summer concerts.
The 11th-century Kapnikarea church sits marooned in the middle of Ermou; from there Psyrri's alleys hold the live rebetiko rooms where bouzouki and baglama play the hashish-den songs Asia Minor refugees brought in 1922. Sets start around 22:00.