The History of the War Museum

The Greek State, wishing to honour all those who fought for the freedom of our country, decided in 1964 to establish a War Museum. The Museum was inaugurated in July 1975 and is still in operation today. Its mission is the collection, preservation and exhibition of war relics, the study, documentation and promotion of the struggles of the Greek nation from antiquity to the present day, in order to stimulate national memory and promote the historical continuity and unity of Hellenism.

Nowadays, the War Museum is the largest museum of military history in Greece and one of the largest in Southeastern Europe. In its premises are exhibited relics relating to the history of the Greeks from all war periods, while there are also sections of historical, photographic and film archives.

In 1988 the War Museum inaugurated its first Annex in Nafplio, in 1995 the second in Chania, while in 2000 it inaugurated Annexes in Thessaloniki and Tripoli. In 2023, the branches in Kalamata, Chalkida and Rethymnon were inaugurated.

The emblem of the War Museum is inspired by the medal awarded to the fighters of the Greek Revolution of 1821 as the “Award of the War of Independence 1821-1829”, where the four antennae of the cross bear the inscription “TOIS HEROIKOIS PROMISTS OF PATRIDOS” and is supplemented with the phrase “WARS DEFENDERS OF FATHER ENESTIN” (an excerpt from the Epitaph speech of Pericles 430 BC, as quoted in the History of the Peloponnesian War by the Athenian historian Thucydides).