Memorial to the Prisoners of the Averof Prison

In 2000, the Municipality of Athens, in cooperation with the “United National Resistance” movement, took the initiative to place memorial stelae in memory of those who died during the Occupation. One of these is the marble stele that is placed in the courtyard of the Supreme Court of Athens and honours the political prisoners of the Averof Prison. The prisons that were located at this area since 1982 and bore the name of the sponsor of their construction, the national benefactor Georgios Averof, initially functioned as a Youth Reform Centre and later as a Judicial Detention Centre. During the period of Occupation (1941-1944), resistance fighters were detained and tortured in the building, while from 1945 until its closure and demolition in 1971 and 1972 respectively, the Prison operated exclusively for political prisoners. The engraved inscription reads: “Eternal Memory to the Greeks who were detained and sacrificed in the Averof Prison due to their vision of National Freedom and Democracy. This is the place where the Averof Prison operated for decades”.