Much seen (and photographed) by international tourists and local visitors alike, the ‘tall guys’ guarding the Unknown Soldier’s monument and the Presidential Mansion, both off central Syntagma Square, are famous in their own right. Yet little is actually known about them.

The Evzones, or Tsoliades, who serve in the guard wear the traditional and historically meaningful uniform and receive exclusive forms of training and benefits. With a history spanning over more than a century, the Greek Presidential Guard was officially founded in 1868 as a regiment of the Greek army.

Today, the duties of the Evzones are of a purely ceremonial nature. The team of Evzones (meaning the ‘well-belted’, a term traced in Homer’s times) is also called the Corps, Flag Guard, Palace Guard and Royal Guard, the last two vestiges of the royal regime. Their training camp is located very near to the Parliament building and one will often see them marching ceremoniously back and forth along Irodou Attikou street whilst changing shifts.

Although soldiers making up this unit do not sleep at the training camp throughout the week and are said to be offered more food portions than the average soldier, they are also expected to be on a constant alert, and yet show no reaction to anything. For there are plenty of tourists who, while having their snapshot taken standing next to the motionless Evzones, quite predictably attempt to make the guards laugh or even twist. Presidential Guards in normal uniform are always around, however, to prevent things from getting out of hand.

Contemporary duties
The Presidential Guard is naturally not involved in any fighting activities, although up to WWII it was regarded the strongest and bravest part of the Greek army. Their uniform is a reproduction of the outfit proudly worn by guerilla fighters during the Ottoman Occupation of Greece (1453 – 1821). Nowadays, young men doing their army duty are hand-picked for the Presidential guard according to specific categories, such as height (they have to be over 1.87 metres), character, moral outlook and good health, general appearance and stamina.

Those who join the corps first complete five-and-a-half months of their basic military training and then receive one month of specific training as Presidential Guard, which they serve for the following five months. The notoriously tough specific training involves the development of the ability to stand still for an hour and the perfecting of their trademark synchronized ceremonial gait when changing guard.

“Of course it takes a lot of training to become an Evzones,” says colonel Efstathios Siamitros of the Presidential Guard. “Have you ever attempted standing completely still for five minutes? If you do, you’ll get an idea of what it may mean to do that for an entire hour.” To somewhat help the situation their ceremonial steps are carried out in slow-motion so as to protect their blood circulation following the literally motionless 60 minutes.

The Presidential guard has the following duties:
· Guarding, on a 24-hour basis, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Presidential Mansion and the gates of the Presidential Guard training camp.
· The official raising and lowering of the flag (at 9am and 6am respectively) every Sunday at the Acropolis .
· Accompanying the President of the Republic on official foreign visits
· Offering honours and welcoming foreign officials on visit
· An annual Parade on New York’s 5th Avenue in celebration of Greece’s October 28 National Day

A meaningful uniform
The uniforms worn by Evzones (of which there are several kinds) are all hand-made at the tailor’s department of the Presidential Guard training camp. There, some ten individuals, skilled in hand-embroidery and machine-sewing, painstaking prepare the uniforms over long periods of time – the Evzones waistcoat alone takes up to one month to sew. World-famous ‘tsarouhi’ shoes are also manufactured at the camp’s shoe-making department by three to four men trained in the craft. Each tsarouhi, a leather clog with black pom-poms, weighs three kgrs and has sixty nails studded into the soles so that the Evzones don’t slip.

The outfit’s variations include the cotton summer uniform, the woolen winter one, the official version reserved for special ceremonies, as well as the ‘Cretan uniform’, an adaptation of traditional Cretan garments representing all Greek islands.

Throughout their entire service, each Evzones teams up with a partner: between them they share both training and duties. Mutual help is also appreciated when donning the uniforms, a task that can prove time-consuming – slipping into the official uniform, for instance, may take up to half an hour. Help also comes in handy with smoothing the black tassel atop the Evzones red cap, or ‘fessi’, straightening the collar, or tying properly the two-part ‘foustanella’, the traditional 400-fold kilt.

Through the hottest summer and the coldest winter, the Evzones invariably wear white woolen stockings and a leather belt with bullet holders to emphasize the waist of the ‘well-belted’ soldier.