War Museum Athens — Attraction in Athens

Visited 24 Oct 2021 (6 euros/person). Would recommend for military history diehards and those with kids who like to look at a bunch of guns.

Disappointment. Sought to learn about Greek military history, whatever they wished to impart. Sadly I walked away with little broader insight into the subject matter.

Museum has many great artifacts with which they might educate visitors. Instead exhibits are a hodgepodge of inconsistent curations assembled across many decades by many people in different styles and qualities. Information that does get shared is so granular that the big picture never emerges.

Result is that this is largely “a bunch of stuff” museum with artifacts and photos presented with little to no context and few if any captions. Often if there are captions, there is no English.

For example, museum showcases Greek involvement in Korean War. There is a wall full of photos with just a handful of captions, only in Greek. Accompanying descriptive text is only in Greek. This isn’t the anomaly, this curation style spans 20th century exhibits. It seems a surprisingly dated, lazy way to impart important history...like World War II...not just to Greek children but to foreigners like myself. A bunch of photos, a bunch of weaponry, and an absent narrative.

In another exhibit there is a wall of beautiful early 20th century weaponry. None of these artifacts are captioned in Greek or English.

Wars of antiquity are covered a bit better but still lack an easy-to-follow narrative. It’s “Here’s a map but we won’t help you with any context.” Curators have thrown in a few TVs showing generally low-yield content with awful reenactments. TVs alone do not absolve the curatorial challenge of explaining subject matter.

Top floor has a few broader summaries which are most welcome. However floor is darkly lit. Greek captions are presented on displays probably as originally intended, which is to say at a legible reading angle. English captions seem an afterthought and are displayed at an angle making the small text very difficult to read.

I garnered the most insight from raised-relief maps associated with various exhibits. They seem to have been executed many years ago, but the quality is outstanding. Regrettably the great workmanship is accompanied by all-Greek text so unless you already know what you’re looking at, it’s a loss.

The good news is the Athens War Museum can do a lot on a low budget to improve. They have all the artifacts to drive a top-notch military history presentation. They just need to figure out how to tell stories. And if it is within your mission to attract a foreign audience, then tell your stories also in English and caption also in English.

I urge Athens War Museum curators to visit the Epigraphic Museum’s “Red Room” to see what a simple, easy-to-read narrative that includes English looks like when it is well done. How nice not to have to fight every step to extract information the museum...

All nations have their history in warfare, but perhaps none that survive can offer such depth into time such as Greece. The Minoan (on Crete and many of the Aegean islands) and the Mycenean (on mainland Greece) civilizations were among the most prominent of the bronze age. Depictions of the Minoan vessels that dominated the seas and bronze longswords of the warlike Myceneans can be seen. A copy of the Dendra armor, the first full plate armor worldwide, is notably absent. Historical antiquity was defined by Greek warfare. Archaic Greece produced the legendary hoplite, the hoplon round shield, the iconic Corinthian helmet, the sturdy and balanced Doric spear, the fearsome Kopis sword, and the -unmatched for its era- Trireme. The Classical period elaborated upon all these, and tactics were developed to make the most of these, and by its end came the invention of siege engines. Philip and Alexander went well beyond, utilizing in full this legacy in the most spectacular conquest run in global history. They initiated the Hellenistic age, where siege weaponry and war vessels reached heights that were not to be reached until almost two millenia. Items of these ages are also indicatively displayed. The Eastern Roman Empire, which we know as Byzantium, and was predominantly Greek in character, lasted for about 1100 years. During its later centuries, many western powers had presence in Greece, such as the Knights Hospitaler and the Republic of Venice. Items from all these periods are present. But there is much more. Weaponry from the post medieval era and the early gunpowder era are also in display, especially from the late 18th and early 19th century, the time when the Greeks regained their independence. There is also much in display from the massive struggles of the 20th century. Items from the Balkan wars, WWI, the war for Asia Minor, WWII, The Korean War, can be seen in great abundance. Finally, there are also jets from the late 20th century, and some indicative diplays of items from other civilizations with greatly respectable historical war history (i.e. Persian, Indian, Japanese, and many more). Perhaps even a pacifist could not resist a visit here...needless to say, a strong military has proven to be the greatest...

This museum definitely has a good, extensive collection of artifacts, from thousands of years ago to the 20th century, including some military vehicles & aircraft outside. For a foreigner, the part of the exhibition about ancient warfare may be especially interesting. Ticket costs 6 EUR, which is affordable. Staff were nice, welcoming and non-intrusive (saying this as a positive thing!).

I've put 4 stars and not 5 because the museum could do with a renovation and, perhaps, finding some more creative/innovative/catchy ways to present their collections - because at times it felt a bit like a 'library' of artifacts. If one is a military geek, s/he will easily know what is where, but if one is from general public (like, probably, most visitors are), s/he might struggle to keep the focus and connect all the dots, so some storytelling, more 'recreations' of scenes (with settings/props/mannequins), some multimedia and/or interactive activities would be great.

All that said, I enjoyed the visit, keep up...