Berlin - Pergamon Museum and James Simon Gallery by Thomas Bugdoll

The Pergamon Museum was built by Ludwig Hoffmann between 1910 and 1930 according to Alfred Messel's designs. Previously, a smaller building had stood on the same site for a few years. It initially housed the important excavation finds of the Berlin museums, such as the frieze slabs of the Pergamon Altar recovered between 1878 and 1886.

The new, larger Pergamon Museum was built as a three-wing complex. Today it houses the Collection of Classical Antiquities, the Museum of the Ancient Near East and the Museum of Islamic Art. Due to the impressive reconstructions of archaeological building ensembles - the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate with the Processional Way of Babylon, the Mshatta Façade - the Pergamon Museum has become famous all over the world and has become the crowd puller of the National Museums in Berlin.

The James Simon Gallery is the new entrance building and visitor center on Berlin's Museum Island. It was named after James Simon (1851-1932), one of the most important patrons of the National Museums in Berlin. The building is part of the Museum Island Master Plan, which was adopted in 1999 to preserve the UNESCO World Heritage Site while transforming it into a contemporary museum complex. The design for the new building is by David Chipperfield Architects.