World-famous Originals in Timeless Rooms – Glyptothek
Munich's oldest public museum; the only museum in the world that is solely dedicated to ancient sculpture ... - there is a whole range of unique characteristics that you could apply to the Munich Glyptothek. But none of these superlatives adequately express what a visit to the Glyptothek can offer in the way of aesthetic, artistic and cultural-historical pleasure.
The name "Glyptothek" is a modern made-up word. It is made up of the old Greek words "glyphein" (to sculpture) and "theke" (repository), meaning therefore a storage place for sculptures. Here Greek and Roman marble statues of the highest quality are presented in a spatial ambience that provides an ideal setting for the works of art.
The antiques are free-standing before the plain brick walls of the vaulted museum halls, the architecture of which is modelled on Roman bath buildings. Large windows, which open up the walls down to the floor onto the inner courtyard of the four-winged building, provide for continuous daylight. On sunny days, therefore, you can encounter the marble figures in an atmosphere that could not have been more impressive even at the original sites in sanctuaries or the market places of ancient cities. Together with the State Collections of Antiques on the south side of the Königsplatz, the Glyptothek possesses one of the most important collections of Greek and Roman art in the world.
