Bust of King Constantine I

The bust of King Constantine I was erected in 1937 in the Small Park (St. George Square). It is the work of the important interwar sculptor Georgios Dimitriadis of Athens, who created the corresponding equestrian statue in Thessaloniki. The bust follows the official portrait of the king and shows him in military uniform. It is placed on a high marble base of 2 m in order to form an unequal relationship with the viewer. At the base of the bust, the king is deliberately and incorrectly inscribed as IB instead of A in order to present him as the successor of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos. The sculpture and the inscription narrate the timeless continuity of Hellenism and reflect the Great Idea in the interwar period.