The Archaeological Museum of Sparta is one of the oldest in Greece — founded in 1875 — and occupies a small neoclassical building in the middle of a public garden a block south of the main square. The collection is mostly small finds from the various sanctuaries around Laconia: bronze figurines, votive offerings, lead pilgrim tokens, and several rare Archaic-period marble reliefs of bearded warriors.
The undisputed star is the so-called "Leonidas of Sparta" — a fragmentary marble bust of a helmeted hoplite, found near the acropolis and traditionally identified as the Spartan king who held the pass at Thermopylae. It is genuinely Archaic and genuinely striking, even if the Leonidas identification is romantic rather than certain. An hour is enough.