What Is the Pergamon Museum?

Built on Museum Island between 1910 and 1930, the Pergamon Museum was constructed specifically to house monumental antiquities too large for Berlin's older museum buildings: the reconstructed Pergamon Altar frieze, the glazed-brick Ishtar Gate and Processional Way from ancient Babylon, and the Market Gate of Miletus. Alongside these three showpieces, the museum has traditionally held the Museum of Islamic Art and part of the Antikensammlung, the state collection of classical antiquities — together making it one of the most-visited museums in Germany before its closure.

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin closed the museum's north wing, home to the Pergamon Altar and the Hall of Hellenistic Architecture, for a long-planned renovation in 2023, and the entire main building has been shut since. The wing holding the Ishtar Gate and the Market Gate of Miletus is expected to stay closed considerably longer, with current reporting pointing to a reopening sometime in the 2030s.

Pergamon Museum Tickets & Prices 2026

With the main building closed, a "Pergamon Museum ticket" for a 2026 visit means a ticket to Pergamonmuseum. Das Panorama, the standalone exhibition space keeping the collection accessible during the renovation. Standard adult admission is €12, with a €6 concession rate for students, apprentices, jobseekers claiming ALG I, and visitors with a disability of at least 50 percent (proof required at entry). Visitors under 18 enter free but still need a ticket — booked online in advance or collected at the counter.

If you also want to see the rest of Museum Island — the Neues Museum, Altes Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie, and Bode-Museum — a combined Museumsinsel-plus-Panorama day ticket costs €24 for adults and €12 concession, usually the better value if you're spending a full day on the island. If you're already weighing a citywide pass for your trip, our breakdown of whether the Berlin Pass is worth it covers when a bundled pass beats booking individual museum tickets like this one. Day tickets for Das Panorama can be booked up to four weeks in advance on the official Staatliche Museen zu Berlin site; buying through third-party resale sites is rarely necessary and often adds a markup.

Opening Hours & Best Time to Go

Das Panorama is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10am to 6pm, and closed all day Monday — the reverse of several other Berlin museums that close on Tuesdays, so double-check before planning a Tuesday visit around it. Public holidays sometimes carry adjusted hours; confirm on the official site if your trip falls on one.

Because the current exhibition space is far smaller than the closed main museum, queues are noticeably lighter than the pre-closure Pergamon Museum used to see. Arriving right at 10am opening, or after 4pm in the late afternoon, are the quietest windows. Weekend afternoons, particularly in July and August, draw the most visitors relative to the space available.

How Long to Plan

Das Panorama is a single large hall built around Yadegar Asisi's 360-degree panorama artwork plus a room of original antiquities, so most visitors are through in 45 minutes to an hour and a half — noticeably shorter than a full Pergamon Museum visit used to run before the closure. If you've bought the combined Museumsinsel ticket, budget half a day to also cover the Neues Museum (home to the Nefertiti bust) and the Alte Nationalgalerie, both a short walk away. If the Pergamon Museum is one stop among several on a short trip, our 2-day Berlin itinerary shows where a Museum Island morning fits best.

How to Get There

Pergamonmuseum. Das Panorama is at Am Kupfergraben 2, 10117 Berlin, directly across the water from the north tip of Museum Island. The closest stop is Museumsinsel on the U5 U-Bahn line; Hackescher Markt and Friedrichstraße S-Bahn stations are both about a 10-minute walk away, and several tram and bus routes stop nearby on Am Kupfergraben and Georgenstraße. The building is wheelchair accessible. Driving into central Berlin isn't worth it — parking near Museum Island is scarce and public transit is faster from almost anywhere in the city.

Visit Tips: Queues, Booking & Common Mistakes

The single most common mistake is booking a "Pergamon Museum" ticket expecting to see the Ishtar Gate or the Pergamon Altar in person — both are packed away for the renovation and won't be back on view until June 2027 at the earliest for the altar, and considerably later for the Ishtar Gate. Read the fine print on any third-party ticket listing before buying; some resale sites still advertise the old museum without clearly flagging the closure.

Book directly through the official Staatliche Museen zu Berlin site to avoid markup, and keep your ticket confirmation on your phone rather than printing it — staff scan QR codes at the entrance. If you're combining Das Panorama with other Museum Island sites on the same ticket, it's checked once at the Panorama and again at each subsequent museum, so keep it accessible throughout the day. Group tours inside the reopened Pergamon Museum are already bookable for dates from June 2027 onward, so if a return trip after the reopening is on your radar, that's worth reserving early.

Nearby Attractions

Das Panorama sits at the edge of Museum Island, so pairing the visit with the rest of the Museum Island complex is the natural next step — the Neues Museum and the Pergamon collection's temporary neighbors are a few minutes' walk away. Heading southwest, it's about a 15-minute walk or a couple of stops on the U5 to the Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag Building is a further 10 minutes on foot from there, making a Museum Island-to-Brandenburg Gate-to-Reichstag afternoon an easy loop through central Berlin.

Frequently Asked Questions