National Historical Museum

"The National Historical Museum of Athens is housed in an impressive Neoclassical building at the heart of the city, within a walking distance from Syntagma and Omonoia. Located at the beginning of Stadiou street, this building once housed the Hellenic Parliament, but it became a museum when the Parliament was transferred to its present home in Syntagma. At first, on the site of the museum, there was the palace of King Otto, the first king of Greece, and then the residence of Al, Kontostavlos, a rich Athenian merchant. However, in 1854, a big fire completely destroyed the original building and then this present Neoclassical construction was built with the designs of the architect Francois Boulanger. Designed from the beginning as a parliamentary building, it had two amphitheaters, one for the parliamentary meetings and another for the meeting of the Senate. After the Parliament was moved to its new home in 1935, this building housed the Ministry of Justice and then the National Historical Museum since 1962. Its collection covers the modern periods of the Greek history, from the 15th till the 20th century. In particular, there are flags, weaponry, furniture, folk costumes, personal items of historical Greek figures and pieces of everyday life. At the yard of the Historical Museum, there stand three statues: the state of Theodoros Kolokotronis, a prominent figure of the Greek Revolution, on horseback; the statue of Harilaos Trikoupis, a famous Greek politician of the late 19th century; and Theodoros Diligiannis, Greek prime minister and political opponent of Trikoupis, assassinated at the entrance of the Parliament in 1905."

"The Museum narrates the history of Modern Greece: the period of Ottoman and Latin rule, the Greek War of Independence (1821), the liberation struggles, the creation of an independent state, the political, social and spiritual development of the Greeks up to the present day."

"They've got lots of great weaponry and artifacts from the war of independence, and a really nice collection of costumes as well."