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The Pergamon Museum in Berlin opens its doors this Sunday for the last time in several years. Due to extensive renovation work, one of the highlights of the World Heritage Museum Island will be closed for a long time.

Large crowds and queues are expected again on the last day. The time slots have long been fully booked. With long opening hours, the museum with the famous Ishtar Gate or the Processional Street of Babylon can be visited until 9 p.m.

The Pergamon Museum is one of the most popular German museums. It will remain completely closed for at least four years. The north wing of the building and the middle wing with the famous Pergamon Altar have not been accessible to the public for ten years.

Construction will take fourteen years and the costs are enormous

Construction phase A with the Pergamon Altar should be accessible again in 2027. The second part B will remain closed at least until 2037. This means that the entire Pergamon Museum cannot be explored again for another fourteen years at the earliest. The total costs could amount to 1.5 billion euros. Originally, parts of the Pergamon Museum were going to remain open during the renovation.

As one of the few museums in Germany, the Pergamon Museum, which includes the collection of antiquities, the Near East Museum and the Museum of Islamic Art, attracts more than a million people every year. In the last year before Corona, there were still 804,000 visitors in 2019, despite the first closures due to construction work.

The house, built between 1910 and 1930, is the dominant part of Museum Island in the heart of the capital. The ensemble, which consists of five historic museum buildings, has been classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1999 due to its special significance.

(t-online, with material from dpa)