Athens Toy Museum

The Toy Museum is the place to reawaken your inner child and learn about childhood across different lands and times. This new museum, which opened in 2017, houses a collection of 20,000 toys, games, and childhood items, ranging from antiquity to 1970, originating not only from Greece but also from Europe, America, Africa, and the East. The department's primary aim is to document all aspects of the themes "childhood," "game," and "toy," by studying the history of toys in Greece and Europe, as well as children’s daily life in a traditional Greek context.

The collection's Greek section comprises infants' and children's toys spanning the classical, Roman, Byzantine, and post-Byzantine periods. These include hand-made traditional Greek toys dating from the 18th to the 20th century, articles from country festivals, 20th-century commercial products, team sports, board games, and seasonal games. A separate group of objects includes reconstructions of popular toys from the early 20th century, made by members of the K.A.P.I. (Centres for the Open Protection of the Aged).

The European part of the collection comprises dolls and games of urban and rural manufacture dating from the 17th to the 20th century, mainly from England, France, and Germany. There is also a selection of 19th and 20th-century European regional costume dolls dressed in costumes from different parts of Greece.