:: War Museum of Athens

Amidst the row of museums on Vassilissis Sophias Avenue stands the War Museum of Athens which explores the history of warfare. It covers a period of thousands of years, from pre-historic times until today and features all sorts of weapons - from stone axes to heavy artillery. The oldest exhibits are primitive weapons used in the stone age as well as more recent finds from the early bronze age. Other exhibits cover the classical and medieval period, the Greek War of Independence and conflicts of the 20th century - from the Balkan wars to the Second World War. You can even climb into the cockpit of a fighter plane.

The Museum was inaugurated in 1975. Its aim and mission is the exhibition of war memontoes, the documentation and study of war history as well as the presentation of the stuggles for freedom of the Greek nation from ancient times to the present day.

The permanent exhibition area of the Museum includes Room 1, which is devoted to antiquity and covers the Stone Age and the Early Bronze Age, with an emphasis on the Mycenean era; Room 2, in which themes from the prehistory of Greece are presented through groups of photographs or drawings; Room 3 presents the Byzantine period, Room 4 the period of Frankish rule, Rooms 5-6 the Greek War of Indepedence, Room 7 the new greek State, Room 8 is devoted to the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars, Room 9 to the Balkan Wars and the First World War, room 10 to the historic period of the Greco-Italian War of 1941-1941 and the German invasion. On the mezzanine, the room is devoted to the first Greek airmen and the ground floor to the P. Saroglou collection. There is also an important and well-organized library in the Museum.