Byzantine Museum

The largest collection of icons on the island of Cyprus is displayed in the Byzantine Museum in the Old City of Nicosia. The icons date from the ninth through to the 18th centuries. The museum also contains an art gallery exhibiting oil paintings, maps and lithographs.

Address: Archbishopric, Plateia Arch; Telephone: (22) 456 781; Opening time: Monday to Friday 9am to 1pm, and 2pm to 5pm; Saturday 9am to 1pm; closed Sundays

Folk Art Museum

The colorful collections in this museum represent Cypriot folk art of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and include wood carvings, jewellery, woven goods, tapestries, embroidery, pottery and national costumes. The museum is housed in the Old Bishopric in a 15th-century Gothic building that used to serve as a Benedictine Monastery and then became the palace of the Archbishop.

Opening time: Monday to Friday 9am to 1pm, and 2pm to 5pm; Saturday 9am to 1pm

Old City Walls

The walls that completely encompass the Old City date from the Venetian occupation in the 16th century, and have a circumference of three miles (five km). Eleven heart-shaped bastions are interspersed along the walls, which have only three gates, in the north, south and east. One of the gates, the Famagusta Gate, has been restored and serves as the Lefkosia Municipal Cultural Centre, used for exhibitions, conferences, lectures and occasional performances. The gate’s vaulted passage leads on to the moat encircling the Old City, which has been planted to create a garden.

Laiki Yitonia

The oldest documentation we have concerning Nicosia within the walls, dates back to 1567, when the Venetians took over the island, and built the fortification with the eleven bastions, that one can still see today. The town planning was a result of a way of living: narrow streets with houses built next to each other. The buildings we see today basically date from the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, and they have all the characteristics of houses built within fortifications. Their design is also proof that architecture has managed to combine both worlds, the East and the West. Greek, French, Venetian and Turkish details, all mix in a typical Cypriot expression. The basic materials used for the buildings were wood, sandstone, and mud brick. The combination of all these different materials gives us today an example of fine architecture.

Back to top