Petros Saroglos

The marble bust of the honoured officer was placed outside the Armed Forces Officers' Club (LAED), former home of the Saroglou family. It was created by the sculptor Konstantinos Palaiologos, a graduate of the Athens School of Fine Arts and a student of the influential sculptor Thanasis Apartis. Petros Saroglos (1864-1920), a great benefactor of the Hellenic Armed Forces, was an Artillery Officer, a successful businessman and an avid collector. In 1879, he was admitted to the Hellenic Army Academy (Evelpidon), from which he graduated in 1886 as a Second Lieutenant of the Artillery. He fought in the Greco-Turkish war of 1897 as a Lieutenant, and, as a reserve officer, he received the rank of Captain in 1910 and the rank of Major in 1914. Saroglos displayed zeal for his commercial enterprises, but devoted his life to creating his own personal cabinet de curiosité, eventually building a great collection consisting of works of art, jewellery, coins and, above all, weapons. The largest and most important part of the Saroglou Weapons Collection, which he bequeathed in his will, is exhibited at the Athens War Museum and includes offensive and defensive weapons, melee weapons and firearms, mainly from the Balkans, Western Europe and Asia.