Heinrich Schliemann was the man who discovered Troy.He was a German classical archaeologist, an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of Homer, and an important excavator of Mycenaean sites, such as Mycenae and Tiryns.
The house was built in 1879. The interior has been affluently garnished by "Pompeian" wall paintings and other decorative wall and ceiling illustrations. It is considered to be the best Renaissance-style work of Hernest Ziller.
In 1927 it was purchased by the Greek State and housed the Supreme Court. Now, it houses the Numismatic (Coin) Museum. It's just near Syntagma Square (blue or red metro line) and it's open to visitors.
Heinrich Schliemann in Wikipedia
Troy in Wikipedia
Numismatic Museum
4 comments:
And it closes (or it used to) at lunch time, because on my last afternoon in Athens, I just missed it. It's first on my list when I get there next time. Yes, I know he has his good and bad points, but I'd read a book about him years ago. You know, it's funny, but as soon as I discovered your blog, I wondered if you might post a photo of Schliemann's house.
Pamela, not only the "lunch time break" but the "Saturday-Synday afternoon day-off" too. Acropolis (and all Athens sites) close at 14:30 on weekends!!! Even in the summer when thousands of tourists wish to see Acropolis on a (less hot) afternoon, they find the site closed.
Oh, the all-mighty state employees...
Yeah, it's the same here. The siesta I can understand, but it does leave tourists short on entertainment. Where this gets the most criticism locally is when boat loads of (well off) cruise tourists dock in Tenerife's capital, Santa Cruz, on Sundays to find that the entire city is closed.
If this was just state employees ... but this is commercial shopkeepers who also complain about the lack of trade. It seems such a simple concept too: that opening one's doors to customers might help! :)
This is a close as I got to Schliemann's house (dug that out this afternoon). It's amazing actually, how little has changed - still the same colour scheme even - in 21 years! It's only the models of the cars that give away the age of my photo.
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