War Museum
The War Museum of Athens is at the junction of Vasilissis Sofias
Avenue and Rizari Street. The original plot was intended
for the building of the National Gallery and was claimed
by many cultural authorities to house their activities and
events. In the same place there was a military campus in
the mid-war years. The camp suffered heavy damages during
the movement of Nikoloas Plastiras in 1935 and was abandoned
after the war.
Today
the museum, which was inaugurated in 1975, is one of the most
known buildings of the city due to its peculiar shape, reflecting
the eclesticistic styles of the late modernism towards the end
of the 1950s. Typical features of the style are the first floor,
which is bigger than the ground floor, thus giving the building
the shape of a cubistic atomic fungus, the balconies and the exhibition
of warplanes and movable cannons in the courtyard.
It
was the first museum in Athens that was equipped with a modern
amphitheatre for lectures and projections, conference and reception
rooms as well as rooms for storage, maintenance and recording
of the collections.
On
the ground floor and on the mezzanine, there are collections of
heirlooms, weapons and objects for the operations of the Greek
armed forces during World War II, the War in Korea and the war
history of Cyprus. On the first floor, visitors can walk through
the war and military history of Greece from prehistoric years
to World War II.
The
museum has a rich library, whose entrance is in the courtyard
with the warplanes, and a photographical archive with over 20.000
photographs of the history of the Greek armed forces.
Opening hours and admission
2, Rizari Street & Vasilissis Sofias Avenue
Evangelismos
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