Toy museum gives play to fun over the centuries

The latest museum in Athens to open its doors to the public this autumn, the Benaki Museum of Toys, has already won the hearts of locals who flock there to enjoy a journey through childhood over the centuries.

Housed in a fairy-tale mansion resembling a castle, the Benaki museum was built in 1900 in a neo-Gothic style in the southern suburb of Faliron. It overlooks the Saronic Gulf and is home to thousands of toys, games and reconstructions dating from antiquity to the present day.

A wooden rocking horse that early 20th-century Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos had given to his grandson greets visitors at the entrance.