War Museum

The War Museum on the edge of the Kolonaki district is Greece's central military-history museum and holds the collection of the Ministry of Defence. Opened in 1975 in a brutalist concrete block dating from the junta years, the permanent exhibition runs through Greek military history from the Mycenaean era and the Battle of Marathon through Byzantium and the Ottoman wars to the 1821 War of Independence and the two World Wars. The forecourt parks fighter aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force; inside are helmets, swords, models of ancient triremes and battle maps for Salamis and Plataea. Admission is cheap, the audience is largely local, and the layout is chronological rather than interactive. For visitors curious about the thread from hoplite to modern soldier, it is an unusually compact survey.