Athens Olympic Museum

The Athens Olympic Museum is an interactive museum about the history and values of the Olympic Games. It sits on the first floor of the Golden Hall shopping center in Marousi, a northern Athens suburb, and a footbridge links it to the Athens Olympic Sports Complex “Spyros Louis” (OAKA), the main venue of the 2004 Games. General admission is €9 at the door or €8.60 online. The museum is closed on Sundays and Mondays, and a timed ticket covers a visit of up to two hours.

The museum opened to the public on 14 May 2021. Lamda Development, the company that owns Golden Hall, created it, and it operates under the auspices of the Hellenic Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee as a member of the Olympic Museums Network. Its main gallery covers about 3,500 square meters on a single floor. If you want a modern, story-driven museum rather than another collection of antiquities, it makes a good addition to an Athens trip.

Athens Olympic Museum at a glance

Source: the Athens Olympic Museum’s official visitor pages, checked September 2026.

What you will see inside

The permanent exhibition has two parts. Part A moves through time from the origins of the Games to the present day. It is built around three Greek milestones: the birth of the Games at Ancient Olympia, their revival at Athens 1896, and their return to Greece at Athens 2004. It also covers the 1906 Intercalated Games, which were held in Athens.

Part B looks at the principles and structure of the Olympic Movement, the organizations behind it, the Olympic message of peace, the sports and athletes, and Greece’s Olympic and Paralympic champions. One whole space is set aside for the Paralympic Games and athletes with disabilities.

The exhibition combines original objects with replicas from international collections, videos, animations, interviews, touchscreen applications and augmented reality (AR) exhibits that you view through your own phone. The museum highlights these objects from its collection:

• A kotinos, the wild-olive wreath given to winners at the ancient Olympic Games
• The study of Dimitrios Vikelas, the first president of the International Olympic Committee, taken from his Athens home
• A bronze disk that Poplios Asklipiadis of Corinth dedicated at Olympia after winning the pentathlon in 241 AD
• Leonidas Kokas’s weightlifting silver medal from Atlanta 1996
• Petros Galaktopoulos’s Greco-Roman wrestling shoes from Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972
• The costume worn by the priestess at the Olympic flame handover ceremony for Seoul 1988

Who the museum suits best

The museum suits sports fans, families with school-age children, and anyone curious about how Greece shaped the modern Olympic Movement. The interactive exhibits and AR features make it easier for children to follow than a traditional antiquities gallery. It also works well if you have already seen the Acropolis and want a different kind of museum.

It is a weaker choice if you only have one or two days in Athens and mainly want to see ancient art. The museum is in Marousi, outside the historic center, and the round trip takes a bigger share of a short stay. In that case, start with the Acropolis Museum or the National Archaeological Museum. You can see a central Olympic site at the Panathenaic Stadium, which is covered in our guide to the best things to do in Athens.

Opening hours and closing days

The museum’s official tickets and opening hours page lists two seasonal schedules for the permanent exhibition:

• Winter (1 October–31 May): Tuesday–Friday 09:00–17:00 (last entry 16:00), Saturday 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00), closed Sunday and Monday
• Summer (1 June–30 September): Tuesday–Saturday 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00), closed Sunday and Monday

The museum is also closed on 1 January, 6 January, Clean Monday, 25 March, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, 1 May, 15 August, 28 October, 25 December and 26 December. Clean Monday and Easter move each year, so check the dates for your trip. The museum’s homepage has at times shown a later winter Saturday closing time than its tickets page. If you plan to arrive late on a Saturday, confirm the time on the official tickets and hours page first.

Tickets, prices and discounts

Every ticket type except the free ones is slightly cheaper online. Buying online also lets you choose your entry date and time slot and show a QR code on your phone at the entrance.

Official Athens Olympic Museum prices, checked September 2026.

Reduced tickets are available to students at higher-education institutions (with student ID), visitors aged 65 and over (with ID or passport), parents of large families holding the ASPE card, companions of visitors with disabilities, and children aged 2–18.

Free entry is available with the required ID to serving military personnel, ICOM card holders, tour guides licensed by the Greek Ministry of Tourism, teachers accompanying school groups and educators holding the Free Entry Card or OLME card, journalists with a press ID, visitors with a disability rating of 67% or higher (with a certificate), and unemployed Greek citizens with a valid unemployment certificate.

Your ticket is valid for two hours from the start time printed on it. The last ticket is issued one hour before closing. If you arrive early, you may be asked to wait. Because of capacity limits, same-day entry is not guaranteed if you arrive late. To move a booking, call +30 210 688 5452 or email [email protected] before your slot.

How to get to the Athens Olympic Museum

The museum is inside Golden Hall on Kifisias Avenue, next to OAKA. According to the museum, the drive from central Athens takes about 15 minutes. Public transport options are listed below.

• Metro: Take Line 1 (green line) to Irini station, then walk about 20 minutes through the OAKA complex and cross the footbridge to Golden Hall.
• Metro and shuttle: Take Line 1 to Neratziotissa, then take the Marousi municipal bus from the station entrance to Golden Hall on Spyrou Louis Avenue. It runs Monday–Friday 08:45–21:50 and Saturday 08:45–21:20.
• Bus: Lines A7, E14, X14 and 550 stop at Olympic Stadium on northbound Kifisias Avenue, where an underground passage leads to Golden Hall. Heading south, get off at Helexpo. Line 444 stops on Pittara Street.
• Car: Follow signs for the Olympic Stadium from Kifisias Avenue, take Spyrou Louis Avenue, and turn onto Pittara Street for Golden Hall parking entrance A. It leads to the grey parking sector, where elevators go up to the museum.

From Monday to Saturday, Golden Hall parking costs €3 for less than one hour, €4 for one to two hours, and €4.50 for more than two hours, with free entry after 21:00. Parking is free on Sundays, but the museum is closed that day. For driving directions from Attiki Odos, see the museum’s access and parking page.

Tips for your visit

• Bring earphones: The museum recommends using your phone with your own earphones for the AR exhibits. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the museum.
• Try the free audio tour: “Listen to Our Story” is available in Greek or English. It has 30 stories about the spaces, sections and selected exhibits, and takes about two hours.
• Photography: Personal photos and videos are allowed. Flash, tripods, selfie sticks and portable lighting are not.
• Lockers and baby facilities: You can leave bags in lockers, and there is a baby changing room on the first level.
• Pets: Pets are not allowed indoors, but assistance dogs are welcome.
• Food: Golden Hall has about 16 cafés and restaurants, so you can easily have lunch before or after your visit.

Local tip: Because the whole visit is indoors, this is a good backup plan for a very hot afternoon or a rainy winter day. Book an online slot for Tuesday to Saturday, save your walking for the outdoor archaeological sites earlier in the day, and check your Acropolis ticket times so the two plans do not clash.

Frequently asked questions