Only Berlin could name an island after museums. Museum Island (Museumsinsel) is actually part of an island in the Spree and is a cluster of buildings housing art and antiquities gathered during a period late in the 19th century and early in the 20th century, when Germany was pre-eminent in Classical and ancient studies.

Museum Island preserves some of the great treasures of Europe and the Middle East.
It is clear that many of these objects were appropriated from countries where these cultures grew. But Museum Island is a unique mini-city of cultural history and visual art that makes the cultural past accessible in a 8.6-hectare complex rivalled only by the British Museum. The buildings are architectural monuments in themselves, with rich interiors, and form a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Travelling visitors should note that there is a difference between the cultural-historical collections of Berlin’s state museums and the buildings that house them. Parts of collections can be divided between buildings. Museum Island is made up of five of these buildings.

Buildings often house temporary exhibitions, which can demand additional cost, as well as permanent exhibitions.

There is a long-term masterplan for Museum Island, which will include some extended closures for reconstruction and renovation.

Altes Museum

Classical art is the theme of Altes Museum, matched by the colonnaded Lustgarten facade, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and completed in 1828. Greek art from the Antikensammlung on the main floor includes sculptures, vases, craft objects, jewellery and gems. A rotunda of Classical sculptures forms a centrepiece.

Upstairs, works from Rome and Etruscan art are displayed, including busts of the lovers Julius Caesar (sculpted from grey-green slate, possibly in Egypt) and Cleopatra. The Caesar piece is one of the early pieces from the Prussian royal collection, acquired by Frederick the Great. The Hildesheim silver service of about 70 plates, bowls and other vessels is another highlight.

A separate chamber houses about 1,500 coins from the Münzkabinett collection, covering 1000 years, some as old as the 7th century BCE.

Pergamonmuseum

Most of the rest of the state-owned antiquities are displayed in the Pergamonmuseum complex on Am Kupfergraben. It houses outstanding examples of the architecture of antiquity from the Antikensammlung and sculpture from parts of the Roman empire. The central exhibits are two great artefacts from Aegean Turkey, the Pergamon Altar and the marble Market Gate of Miletus. There are further reconstructions and the Orpheus Mosaic, also from Miletus.

The northern wing houses Museum für Islamische Kunst, with Islamic decorative art, architecture and objects from the age of the prophet Mohammed until the 19th century. The highlights are the facade from the palace of Mshatta in Jordan and the Aleppo Room.

In the Vorderasiatisches Museum is the extraordinary reconstruction of the Ishtar (or Lion) Gate and processional way from the walls of Babylon and the facade of the throne room of Nebuchadnezzar II. These great works are largely reassembled inside the museum with interpretive exhibits and preserved antiquities, along with a model imagining the Tower of Babel. There are about 270,000 objects from excavations in Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia.

The Pergamon Museum is closed to visitors while under restoration. The Pergamon hall is set to reopen in 2027, however other sections are expected to be closed until 2037. But Das Panorama, a 360-degree recreation artwork of ancient Pergamon by the artist Yadegar Asisi on the south-west side of Am Kupfergraben, depicts the altar in its contemporary context and includes some artefacts. See a 3D scan of the Pergamon Altar to get an idea of the scale of the moument.

Neues Museum

The Neues Museum building on Bodestraße contains exhibits from two historical collections. The Ägyptisches Museum Berlin is best known for the limestone bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, which was found at Amarna before World War II. The museum is in the northern wing of the Neues Museum building and covers three floors. More than 2,500 exhibits are on display.

The bust has its own room, the north Dome Room. In the museum are other busts of the royal family who lived at Amarna, including Nefertiti’s controversial pharaoh husband Akenhaten. Also in the museum are three early Egyptian burial chambers with reliefs, treasures from the Meroë period pyramids of Sudan, and the Papyrussammlung archive, which actually contains a variety of ancient texts.

There are about 6,000 exhibits to see in the Museum Vor- und Frühgeschichte, a cultural history collection that explains early Europe. They include Heinrich Schliemann’s Troy archaeological finds and the Bronze Age golden ceremonial artefact known as the Berlin Gold Hat, which combines solar and lunar calendars and has its own room. But the museum also covers archaeological finds from Europe and Asia from Neanderthal to medieval times and artworks from Classical antiquity.

Bode-Museum

The Bode-Museum on Am Kupfergraben houses exhibits from the Skulpturensammlung exhibition of European works from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. There are early and Renaissance Italian sculptures and the late medieval works include carvings by Tilman Riemenschneider. Rich Baroque works by Andreas Schlüter are among the later pieces.

Late antique Mediterranean and Byzantine art and objects from the Museum für Byzantinische Kunst span more than 1300 years. Many exhibits show early Christian iconography. The museum was renamed for its great founder and curator, Wilhelm von Bode, who assembled the early collection.

The 1904 building required ingenious engineering by Ernst von Ihne to be fitted to its site at the northern point of Museum Island, which is reached from Monbijoubrücke.

Alte Nationalgalerie

A building on Bodestraße that looks like a Greek temple is actually a forum for mostly 19th century painting and sculpture, stretching from the French Revolution to World War I. Notable works are the Romantic paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, the works of Adolph von Menzel, including paintings documenting the life of Frederick the Great and the extraordinary industrial work Das Eisenwalzwerk, and the French Impressionist painters Renoir, Monet and Manet.

A sculpture hall includes the sister Prussian princesses by Johann Gottfried Schadow, sculptor of the Brandenburg Gate quadriga.

The partly completed James-Simon-Galerie is destined to form an entrance and visitor centre linking four of the five museum buildings and now houses an exhibition space for parts of the collections and a restaurant.

It takes at least a day to explore Museum Island, but to appreciate all that is on offer would take two. Late-opening days, especially in summer, allow for an extended Museum Island experience.

All these museums admit visitors under 18 free and other concessions are available. A day ticket to all the Museum Island museums costs €24. A three-day pass to all 19 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin museums costs €32. There are other museum passes and dozens of other Berlin museums.

To reach Museum Island, take the S-Bahn trains S3, 5 or 9 to Hackescher Markt and cross the Friedrichsbrücke Spree bridge at Burgstraße or the U-Bahn line U5 to Museumsinsel. Buses 100 and 200 stop nearby at Lustgarten.

Fans of cultural and art history can also look south of Unter den Linden from Museum Island. The Humboldt Forum, a building project combining a reconstruction of the former royal palace Berliner Schloss and the site of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst and Ethnologisches Museum, temporary exhibition spaces and educational spaces.

To appreciate all Berlin’s highlights, and get important travel tips, download a comprehensive travel guide to Berlin. Raven Travel Guides Europe helps get you behind the stories of Berlin’s other landmarks, such as the Brandenburg Gate, Schloss Charlottenburg, and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.