Athens War Museum
The War Museum was inaugurated in July 1975 and still operates today. The building, with characteristic features of the modernization movement in the late 1950s, is one of the most famous buildings in the city of Athens.
The mission of the museum is to collect, exhibit and preserve war relics, to promote, document and study the Games of the Greek Nation from antiquity to the present day, in order to stimulate national memory and promote historical continuity and unity of Hellenism. It covers all periods of military activity from the Early Bronze Age to the present day. The Athens War Museum has set up branches in Thessaloniki, Chania, Nafplio and Tripoli, and also serves as a training ground for school tours.
Outdoor artillery, as well as Hellenic Air Force aircraft are on display outside the main building. The interior houses the permanent exhibition of weapons collection, donated by Petros Saroglou, an officer of the Greek Artillery. The collection consists of weapons from different eras from around the world, especially rare and valuable with the most important weapons of the Greek revolution.
The Historical Archive includes a collection of 400 old maps, personal files, correspondence, military calendars and daily unit orders from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Photographic Archive has more than 20.000 photographs from 1897 to the present day.
The museum has a maintenance department with a total of five laboratories, so that there is better and more scientific maintenance and care of the exhibits from various damages. The workshops, which are the maintenance department, are:
- Metal workshop
- Weapons laboratory
- Map laboratory
- Painting workshop
- Drawing workshop
Finally, the Athens War Museum has a conference center, which consists of an amphitheater, a training room, a foyer and a patio. Every year, conferences, seminars, exhibitions and receptions are organized there.