Closing from October
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Berlin’s Pergamon Museum closes completely – a part will only open again in 14 years
The entire Pergamon Museum will be closed for three and a half years from October. After all, the Pergamon Altar should be accessible again from 2027 – but other parts of the museum will probably only open much later.
The Pergamon Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island will be completely closed to visitors for three and a half years from October 23 of this year. The reason is that the southern part of the building is now also being repaired, as the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation announced on Monday in Berlin. With the planned complete closure by 2027, the foundation says it wants to save time and money on the renovation.
Part of the museum is not scheduled to reopen until 2037
The north wing and the central part of the museum with the Pergamon Hall are already being renovated. Completion is planned for 2025 and the reopening is expected in spring 2027. The southern part of the building is not to be reopened until 2037 – i.e. in 14 years.
The Ischtar Gate, which attracted around 800,000 visitors last year alone, is not to be open to the public until then. “The main exhibits, the main attractions are large built-in architectures. If you remove them, they are destroyed. You have to be incredibly careful,” said Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, on Monday in the rbb24 evening show.
Foundation fears for the safety of the exhibits
The southern part of the building is “in a very poor structural condition, which affects the stability of the building and the safety of the exhibits,” said the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation on Monday. “There is an acute need for renovation, among other things, due to the strong moisture penetration of the building on the facades and roofs.” A lot of damage had already occurred during the war, but repairs afterwards were “completely inadequate”. The technical systems are also outdated, it said. Among other things, a fourth wing is planned as a new building; In addition, the houses on the Museum Island are to be connected to one another.
Renovation should cost a total of 1.2 billion euros
The southern part of the building houses the Museum of Islamic Art, the Near Eastern Museum and the Miletus Hall, which belongs to the collection of antiquities. The collections or individual pieces from them are to be shown during the renovation in the neighboring Pergamon Panorama or in other houses. The Museum of Islamic Art is to move from its current rooms in the south wing to the north wing during the closing time.
According to current planning, the renovation and construction costs for the southern part amount to 722.4 million euros. In addition, almost 300 million euros are planned for price increases during the construction work. A total of more than 1.2 billion euros is estimated for both parts.
“It has to be clear. This is an outstanding world heritage site that is in a terribly dilapidated state and it has to be worth it to us,” said Foundation President Parzinger.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, March 27, 2023, 6:17 p.m