The pressure has been great. The Pergamon Museum in Berlin has had extended opening hours during the months of September and October, yet the queues have been long. A large number of visitors have wanted to catch a glimpse of the objects in one of the three museum collections (Antikensammlung, Vorderasiatisches Museum and Museum für Islamische Kunst) before the museum closes for renovation on 23 October.
The Pergamon Museum in Berlin is one of Germany’s most popular destinations with famous objects such as the monumental Pergamon Altar and the beautifully blue Ishtar Gate. Every year, the museum attracts more than one million visitors.
The Ishtar Gate and the rest of the Pergamon Museum’s collections are closed to visitors for four years. Archive image.
But within the framework of the “Masterplan museumsinsel Berlin” the museum is now closed for extensive renovations. The idea is also that in the future it will be easier to move between the various museums located on the world heritage-listed island in the Mitte district of Berlin.
The renovation will be prolonged. The entire museum is not expected to open until 2037. But the part where the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate are located is supposed to be accessible to the public again in “only” four years, in the spring of 2027.