Bergama Museum

Bergama is the modern town beside ancient Pergamon, and its museum tells the story of both. Research began in 1865 when the high reliefs of the Altar of Zeus were found inside a Byzantine wall on the Acropolis. Official excavations followed from 1878 to 1886 under C. Humann and A. Conze, and a small depot museum was built in the excavation-house garden to protect the finds.

As discoveries grew, a proper building was needed. Some pieces were shown in a town-centre building from 1924. In the 1930s, through Turkish-German cooperation and at the request of the governor of İzmir, a new museum was founded on the site of an old cemetery, with a design inspired by the Altar of Zeus. It was completed on 30 October 1936.

Most of the archaeological exhibits come from the Acropolis, the Asklepion, the Red Hall (Serapeion) and the Musalla cemetery, together with finds from nearby cities such as Pitane, Myrina and Gryneion. The chronology runs from the Bronze Age to the end of the Ottoman period, including Pergamon-made pottery, Megarian bowls and cistophoric coins first minted here. The ethnography section shows costumes of the Yörük, Turkmen and Çepni tribes, bridal wear, and carpets, rugs and saddle bags from the Bergama region, a notable carpet centre.