Numismatic Museum of Athens

The Iliou Melathron stands out for its bold, neoclassical facade and the lush, private garden tucked behind an iron fence. Heinrich Schliemann, the amateur archaeologist who excavated Troy, commissioned this mansion in eighteen seventy-eight. He wanted a residence that reflected his obsession with antiquity, filling the interior with painted scenes of Homeric epics and Greek motifs. Today, the building houses one of the world's most significant collections of coins, carrying the weight of ancient economic history through thousands of gold and silver pieces.