Vassilios Nikoltsios Collection - War Museum

The collection of Vassilios Nikoltsios narrates the most recent Greek history through 7,500 relics. The original and rare exhibits were collected over a period of 45 years after a systematic and continuous search for relics in Greece and abroad. The collection of Vassilios Nikoltsios is developed in four sections:

 

Gallery of Battalions of Excellence and Military Medals

The first part includes the Battalions of Excellence and the Military Medals. It is the largest collection of military medals displayed in Greece. In addition to the Military Medals, the medals of the Hellenic Royal Gendarmerie and the Hellenic Police, the Coast Guard and the Fire Brigade, as well as the medals of the Republic of Cyprus are also presented.

The showcase of the Battalions of Excellence presents the Royal Battalions and the Battalions of Excellence of the Hellenic Republic, which are unique objects of Greek history and art.

 

Gallery of weapons and swords

The weapons, manufactured in the beginning of the 19th century until today are placed separately by type, i.e. rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, machine guns, ammunition, bayonets and spears, daggers and swords, revolvers and pistols. In the showcases we find rare weapons such as the Mylonas rifle, the only weapon of Greek design or the Mannlicher-Schönauer(1903) rifle used by the Macedonian warriors.

 

Exhibition of Greek military uniforms

Selected rare uniforms of famous and anonymous people present the diversity of Greek military uniforms. The three evzone uniforms worn by the Presidential Guard stand out.

 

Memories from modern Greek history

The main part of the Nikoltsios’s collection is entitled “Memories from modern Greek history” and includes original relics, paintings, photographs, documents and personal items of historical figures, through which the following thematic sections are presented: