Following the movement that arose in Europe a little after the World War I, the dictator Theodoros Pagalos decided that a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier should be built in Athens, too.
After three years and lots of disagreements on where it should be built and how it should look, its construction started in 1929 right infront of the Parliament House, in Syntagma.
Αrtists and intellectuals severely criticized the site selected as well as the form of the monument which was characterized "monsterity" by lots of people.
Criticism was so sharp that both the then President and the Prime Minister of Greece avoided to go to the inauguration which took place on 25 March 1932 in celebratory atmosphere.
The sculpture depicts a dying hoplite. It's the Unknown Soldier who's all the soldiers that gave their lives for Greece.
On the retaining wall are inscribed the important battles of Greece and two quotations by Thucydides, from Pericles' Funeral Oration: "... and one bed is carried empty, made for the unknown ones" and "For eminent men, every place is (worthy) burial ground"
Although this kind of monuments usually content the corpse of an anonymous dead soldier, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma is empty following the relative ancient greek custom.
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