Everybody’s been to Cyprus: (deep breath) Neolithic hunter-gatherers, the Mycenaeans, the Achaeans, the Phoenicians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Venetians, the Ottomans, the French, the Brits – and now international holiday-makers ready for some r ‘n’ r on the island which famously boasts over 300 days of sunshine a year.
Whether staying for a while or just passing through, earlier visitors left their architectural traces, from prehistoric settlements, Greek temples and Roman villas to Christian basilicas, Byzantine monasteries and Gothic churches. Old crafts are kept alive in dedicated villages, like lace-making in Lefkara, pottery (the island’s oldest craft) in Foini, hand-weaving in Fyti or copperware in Nicosia. (The name Cyprus is derived from the Latin for copper, ‘aes Cyprium’, or Cyprus metal, which is still mined on the island.)
Lefkara lace is included on the UNESCO Intangible World Heritage List.
Arts and culture came too. Exquisite mosaic floors were commissioned by the island’s wealthy to beautify their palaces and villas and can still be appreciated today at some of the many archaeological sites. The words of Euripides and Sophocles still ring out on warm summer evenings during ancient Greek tragedies amid the ruins at the Kourion amphitheatre or the Paphos Odeon.
Greek tragedies are still performed at the Kourion amphitheatre.
Cyprus’s modern tragedy is that since 1974, it has been a divided island. A Turkish invasion, launched to protect the rights of Turkish Cypriots, has left approximately the top third of the island under occupation. The so-called Green Line separating Turkish from Greek Cypriots runs right through Nicosia, making it the world’s only divided capital. The whole island is about 100 miles long by 40 wide, and the four main towns – Nicosia, Paphos, Larnaca and Limassol – are connected by motorway.
Limassol (Greek name Lemesos)
With its ten-mile coastline, some the island’s ritziest hotels and acres of public beaches (there are no private beaches on Cyprus), Limassol is the island’s most cosmopolitan city.
For a great overview of the history of modern art in Cyprus, head for the Limassol Municipal Art Gallery, which has around 600 works by contemporary artists, including painting, sculpture, pottery, installations and mixed media works. These are displayed in an older building, while a modern extension presents recent Cypriot artists.
Limassol Municipal Art Gallery
Located right on the sea front, one of the city’s most visited spots, the Limassol Sculpture Park stems from symposia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when sculptures were created on-site by artists from Cyprus, Greece and other countries, using materials such as local stone. A digital info system on all the works explains the concept behind each one.
Limassol Sculpture Park
Lania (Laneina)
A half-hour in from the coast above Limassol in the foothills of the Troodos Mountains, Lania has earned the nickname the “artists’ village” due to being home to a creative community since the 1970s.
Hand-written signs by the courtyard door – ‘Happiness is a decision’ or ‘We don’t see things as they are…We see things as we are’ – greet visitors to the Gata Jewellery Workshop, where Katia Theo works with polymer, resin and other materials to make a range of one of a kind earrings, bracelets, rings, pendants and necklaces.
Katia Theo at work in her Gata Jewellery Workshop
In 1973 the late, Northumberland-born painter Michael Owen was the first artist to establish a studio in Lania, and today New Zealand-born Jacqueline Owen, herself a ballet teacher, continues to run the Michael Owen Gallery, the oldest independent gallery in Cyprus.
Michael Owen Gallery
There is a range of Michael’s giclee fine art limited edition prints of Cyprus available to purchase, while some of his original works are also on display, although not for sale. Michael’s work is also in the collections of the Cyprus Parliament, the Cyprus Presidential Palace and Limassol Municipal Art Gallery.
In his spacious studio next to the village taverna, Antonis Rizopoulos makes big, bold, colourful compositions inspired by mythology, history and fairy tales with recurring motifs such as bulls, cockerels and horses.
Antonis Rizopoilos in his studio-gallery in Lania
Open studios are held in the village in April and October, and there are plans to establish an artist’s residency.
Platanistia
Between Limassol and Paphos and a few kilometres up the hill from the coast at Pissouri, Platanistia would be an otherwise unremarkable village were it not for the Hambis Printmaking School and Museum.
In 1982 the Cypriot printmaker Hambis Tsangaris imported the first fine art printing press into Cyprus, from Russia. It almost did not happen. Confusing the Greek word for printmaker with the word for a money-forger, customs suspected Tsangaris of shady plans and were initially reluctant to sign off on the unfamiliar piece of machinery. The press was eventually allowed in and Tsangaris went on to offer free printmaking classes. He is now recognised as the “father of printmaking” in Cyprus.
Hambis Printmaking School and Museum founder Hambis Tsangaris in a room dedicated to his own work
The classes have introduced thousands of students to the art of printmaking and trained teachers who have gone on to introduce the medium elsewhere. There are also touring workshops to towns and villages around the island.
The workshop in the Hambis Printmaking School and Museum
The first of its kind in Cyprus, the museum occupies a group of rebuilt traditional buildings and houses a collection of over 6,000 original prints by master printmakers from all over the world. Dating from the 16th century to the present day, they include works by Rembrandt, Dürer and Goya. The workshop hosts temporary exhibitions of students’ work. See also NICOSIA.
Larnaca (Larnaka)
Larnaka Region does a great job of introducing locals and visitors to the city’s sights on a Larnaca 360° Cultural Walk, when you can familiarise yourself with its museums, monuments and galleries.
The Larnaca Archaeological Museum houses a large collection of archaeological finds from the area, including the ancient city kingdom of Kition and the main Neolithic settlements of Choirokitia and Tenta-Kalavasos.
Larnaca Archaeological Museum
Faience (tin-glazed pottery), ivory and alabaster pieces attest to Cyprus’s commercial ties with different countries during antiquity. Aside from local exhibits, there are also unique items of Egyptian, Mycenaean, Phoenician, Assyrian and Persian origin.
Housed in a former 1880s colonial warehouse on Europe Square, the Larnaca Municipal Art Gallery has themed exhibitions featuring contemporary artists from Cyprus and abroad. Exhibitions are spread across interconnecting halls and include sculptures, installations, paintings and mixed media works.
The Larnaca Municipal Art Gallery occupies a former Colonial warehouse.
Heading towards the port, adjacent to the Piale Pasha coastal street is the Larnaca Art Workshops Neighbourhood, where a number of artists and craftmakers ply their trade from home studios in a cluster of low-built traditional houses. Most do not keep regular hours, so it is pot luck who you end up visiting.
Owned by master potter Efthymios Symeou, the Studio Ceramics Workshop specialises in museum-quality replicas of items from Cyprus’s prehistoric, ancient and medieval periods. Efthymios also has work in gift shops at several major museums and other attractions around Cyprus such as the Paphos Archaeological Park.
Efthymios Symeou of the Studio Ceramics Workshop specialises in museum-quality replicas of prehistoric, ancient and medieval items.
Citing Schiele, Bacon and Van Gogh as inspirations, Rona Mikellidou of Rona’s Art Studio specialises in facial expressions. She is the only painter in the neighbourhood.
Painter Rona Mikellidou
Elsewhere in Larnaca, Theo Michael and his wife Anja have gone from running a chain of video rental stores in the UK to operating Art by Theo Michael. Theo’s output is prolific, with original paintings elbowing each other for wall space and hand-signed fine art prints stacked ready to be browsed.
Some of Theo Michael’s prolific output
Citing Edward Hopper as an influence, Theo’s scenes have a similarly enigmatic atmosphere: Who are these characters? What are they thinking or doing? Other paintings are undeniably Vettrianoesque with a similar blend of film noir, nostalgia and mystery.
Theo Michael Photoshops compositions together from his own photographs, then paints them in acrylic.
Theo’s process begins by Photoshoping possible compositions together from his own photographs, creating familiar yet invented scenarios. He then draws a scene on canvas with acrylic paint thinned with turpentine before getting to work with opaque oils. You might catch him at his easel when you visit.
The Pierides Museum houses a private collection of over 2,500 Cypriot antiquities spanning 9,000 years from the Neolithic period (around 4000BC) to the 15th century, shedding light on centuries-old civilisations which flourished in Cyprus.
Pierides Museum
In 1830, the collection’s founder, Demetrios Pierides (1811-1895) began collecting ancient Cypriot artefacts and storing them in the family mansion to prevent them being illegally exported. Five subsequent generations have added to the collection, and the colonial-style building is now Cyprus’s oldest private museum.
As well as a fine display of figurines, vessels, gods and goddesses there are ancient maps of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean and a rare collection of Hellenistic and Roman glassware. Other prized items include red polished ware from the Early Bronze Age and medieval ceramic dishes.
The Rise Street Art Hotel is a Larnaca landmark.
Mazotos
On the coast between Larnaca and Limassol, Mazotos would be an uninspiring town were it not for the Costas Argyrou Museum dedicated to the locally born artist and the first recognised Cypriot naive sculptor whose museum, which he planned himself, sits by a field on the edge of town. On the outside, the angular building resembles a modern church, which was its intended purpose originally. Inside, Argyrou’s statuary large and small is beautifully displayed in a modern gallery setting.
Costas Argyrou Museum
Inspired by a visit to the Larnaca Archaeological Museum, Argyrou (1917-2001) turned to art at the age of 52 with no prior knowledge or experience, creating sculptures out of stone and later wood based on popular tradition, daily life, the animal kingdom, ancient Greek mythology and Christian Orthodox iconography. He also produced mosaics and experimented with painting and glass etching.
Figurine by Costas Argyrou
Nicosia (Lefkosia)
Most visitors to Nicosia head for the medieval old town within its massive, star-shaped, Venetian wall. Here, Lidra and Onasagorou streets are lined with craft shops, while a glance down many streets might catch part of the Green Line, the ‘border’ between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot parts of the island. A valid passport should gain you entry into Turkish Nicosia via a checkpoint.
A pavement sign points to Nicosia’s old town within its star-shaped wall.
The Centre of Visual Arts and Research (CVAR) houses the private collections of the Costas and Rita Severis Foundation – mostly 18th to 20th century art, traditional costumes and other historical artefacts and memorabilia, offering a glimpse into Cyprus’s past and exploring the island’s cultural heritage shared by various communities. The only bi-communal museum with Turkish Cypriots on its board, its underlying ethos is one of promoting the values of peaceful coexistence. It is the only Cyprus museum to receive the European Cultural Heritage Grand Prix award.
The CVAR has the largest collection of 18th to 20th century paintings of Cyprus by foreign artists who visited the island to depict its landscapes, seascapes, architecture, flora and fauna. Many of the pictures reflect the flourishing of Orientalism, as artists set out to discover a world which was fast disappearing in their own developing and industrialised countries. Many of their works are tinged with nostalgia in postcard-like scenes of everyday life such as bazaars and camel trains.
At various points throughout the museum, visitors can watch filmed “snippets” presented by the museum’s director, Rita Severis, discussing some of the artworks, while various tableaux using costumed mannequins and contemporary furnishings recreate earlier periods.
A section is dedicated to Cyprus’s last queen, Caterina Cornaro
Cyprus’s last queen, Caterina Cornaro (1454-1510) has a section to herself. In 1489 Caterina was forced to abdicate and sell the administration of the country to the Republic of Venice. The museum has portraits of Caterina by Veronese and Titian. She was also painted by Dürer, Bellini and Giorgione, and Donizetto wrote an opera about her.
The Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation is housed in the bank’s old administrative building, where it hosts a series of exhibitions. Opened in 2024 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion, Cyprus Insula (until June 30, 2025) is an exhibition in five acts capturing life in Cyprus from antiquity to the present day and conveying the ‘unwavering message of the entirety of the insularity of Cyprus’.
Installation shot from the exhibition Cyprus Insula at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation
Combining elements from the island’s multifaceted past, the exhibition examines the historically unified cultural character of Cyprus. Exhibits range from the earliest known cartographic depiction of Cyprus in the second century AD to a multi-screen audio-visual installation about the events leading up to the Turkish invasion in 1974 and its aftermath. Exhibits include antiquities, folk art, contemporary artworks, manuscripts, engravings and digital applications.
George Pol. Georghiou, ‘The Rebirth of Cyprus’, 1960 (Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation)
A beautifully restored building just outside the city wall houses the State Gallery of Contemporary Art, where paintings and sculptures by 20th century Cypriot artists occupy multiple rooms spread over three floors.
State Gallery of Contemporary Art
In a former power station, the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC) is the largest contemporary art centre on the island. The building’s restoration and conversion into a cultural space won it the Europa Nostra Award. The former industrial setting, with its looming pitched ceilings and original equipment, blends well with the art and installations. Since opening in 1994, it has hosted over 100 exhibitions by Cypriot and international artists.
The Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC) occupies a former power station.
The Hambis Municipal Printmaking Museum shares its collection with its sister museum in Platanistia, including works by Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya, Toulouse-Lautrec, Hogarth and Hiroshige. There is a series of themed exhibitions. See also PLATANISTIA.
Stas Paraskos (1933-2014), ‘Aphrodite’s Abode’ (Hambis Municipal Printmaking Museum)
The works in the A. G. Leventis Gallery are spread across several sections, including: the Paris Collection, gathered by founder Anastasios G. Leventis for his Paris home and comprising European art from the Old Masters through Impressionism to Modernism as well as period furniture and decorative arts; the Greek Collection of 19th and 20th century oil paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints; and the Cyprus Collection, featuring work by artists born between 1884 and 1930.
Victor Ioannides (1903-1984), ‘Card Players’ (A. G. Leventis Gallery)
The Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia presents the history of Nicosia from prehistoric times to the present day through over 10,000 objects, including paintings, engravings, costumes, maps and archival material.
Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia
Housed in the former 15th century Archbishopric Palace, the Cyprus Folk Art Museum displays a large collection of furniture, weaving, embroidery, costumes, lace work, wood carvings, silverwork, basketry, leatherwork, naive painting and other artefacts. The centrepiece is a magnificent Gothic arch. There is also a beautiful collection of icons, while recreated living quarters do a good of evoking the past.
The magnificent Gothic arch in the Cyprus Folk Art Museum
Paphos (Pafos)
The island’s capital in Roman times, Paphos is virtually an open air museum. UNESCO simply added the whole town to its list of World Heritage Sites.
The site of the Paphos Archaeological Park began in the Neolithic period as a place of worship of fertility deities. It went on to be one of the oldest Mycenaean settlements and site of a temple dedicated to Aphrodite* as well as villas, palaces, fortresses and rock-hewn tombs. *According to classical mythology, Cyprus is the mythical birthplace of the goddess of love and beauty, who is said to have emerged from the sea near Paphos. A large rock in a bay marks the spot.
Mosaic flooring in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The villas were richly adorned with mosaic floors, with exceptional geometric motifs and figural scenes from mythology such as Leda and the Swan, the birth of Achilles, Theseus and the Minotaur and Orpheus playing his lyre.
Some buildings are named for mythological characters such as the House of Aion, the god who was the personification of time, or the House of Orpheus after the bard, musician and prophet. The House of Dionysus, named after the god of wine, was a particularly impressive Roman residence covering 2,000 square metres.
Paphos Archaeological Park
The Paphos Archaeological Museum displays artefacts from excavations in the district dating from prehistoric times to Nea Pafos, Cyprus’s metropolis in the Roman period. The collection includes the earliest copper-based artefacts ever discovered in Cyprus (which was named for the precious metal) and an abundance of amphorae demonstrating the scope of the city’s commercial exchanges with the entire Mediterranean region. There are also marble statues of Aphrodite and other mythological characters along with fine ceramics, glass vessels, jewellery and various objects in precious metals, ivory and other exotic materials.
Paphos Archaeological Museum
At the top of the old town, The Place is a renovated fruit warehouse which now sells a huge range of Cypriot arts and crafts such as pottery, mosaics, lace, pyrography (decorating wood or other materials with burn marks), silk, paintings, glassware, jewellery, textiles and weaving. Many designs are inspired by original museum artefacts.
Glass display in The Place
Local artists and craftmakers give live morning demonstrations, when you can try your hand at a variety of practices. There are also locally produced foods as well as wine, olive oil, syrup, honey, marmalades, herbs and – a local favourite – rose water.
The Place occupies a renovated fruit warehouse in Paphos old town.
Down the street in Ibrahim’s Khan, the name of the Turkish inn which once stood there, Elham Razani (her first name means inspiration) might be seen painting doors outside her gallery. However, these reproductions of traditional Persian doors contain not a scrap of wood, but are made of a material Elham has made (“a secret”, she says) which she meticulously details to look like the real thing.
Elham Razani with one of her reproductions of a traditional Persian door
In keeping with tradition, each door has two knockers, one for male visitors and one for female visitors. (It’s not difficult to tell which is which based on their shape.) Each knocker would make a different sound to let the resident know whether a visitor was male or female. Both knockers used at the same time would indicate a family or mixed group. Elham also makes semi-abstract figurative work, which is bold and colourful and often features women dancers. She hosts two to three exhibitions a year by local and international artists.
The Cosmos Gallery in Paphos old town has copies of museum objects.
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