The Cyprus Museum, the island's story under one roof

Cyprus has thousands of years of history scattered across sites all over the island, and the best of almost all of them has ended up in one Nicosia building. That’s why I see this museum as the starting point for any trip with even a passing interest in the past. Below you’ll find what’s inside, where it is and how I’d tackle it, drawn from the city council’s own entry.

The island’s great archaeological museum

The municipality presents it as the main archaeological museum of Cyprus, tracing the island’s civilisation from prehistory to the early Christian period. It adds that excavations across the island have steadily enriched the collections and put Cypriot archaeology at the forefront of international research. What you’ll see is pottery, jewellery, sculpture and coins from the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Greco-Roman period.

A detail British readers may enjoy is who pushed for it. The municipality notes that Horatio Herbert Kitchener, who arrived in 1878 as a young lieutenant to survey the island, made a major contribution to establishing the Cyprus Museum.

The pieces you shouldn’t miss

The municipality picks out three things. First, the statue of the Aphrodite of Soloi, which is why the museum is a stop on the Aphrodite cultural route. Second, a collection of gold jewellery. Third, finds from the royal tombs of Salamis, the great ancient city on the east coast. That last one has an extra edge, because Salamis is now in the north, and here you can see part of what came out of it. If you want to see the sites themselves, start with UNESCO sites in Cyprus. And if the kingdoms of the Nicosia plain appeal, Tamassos and Idalion are less than 20 km away.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Nicosia on Expedia and filter by area before price.

Where it is and getting there

The museum is on Mikis Theodorakis Avenue, just outside the old town’s western walls, a few minutes’ walk from Paphos Gate and Eleftheria Square. Next to that gate, just inside the Venetian walls of Nicosia, is the Holy Cross Catholic Church of 1900, partly paid for, the municipality says, by the Spanish royal family, whose coat of arms is still on the ceiling. It’s a curious stop on the way.

Opening hours and prices

For this I don’t use the Department of Antiquities’ website, which blocks us, but the Nicosia Tourism Board. Its listing has the museum running 8:00 to 18:00 on Tuesday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00 on Saturday and 10:00 to 13:00 on Sunday, with the first Wednesday of each month running until 20:00, and gives an entry price of €4.50. It’s closed on Mondays. In an article on free museums the same board includes it, so I’d take the money and settle it at the desk. The phone number it publishes is +357 22 865 854.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Cyprus Museum and pick one that fits your day.

My plan for it

I’d go first thing on my first day in Nicosia and give it about two hours, slowing down in the Bronze Age rooms, the most distinctly Cypriot part. Then I’d walk to Eleftheria Square and carry on into the old town. The capital’s other museums, from the Byzantine to the Leventis, are ranked in museums in Nicosia. For the rest of the island, town by town, see museums in Cyprus.

Where the bus does not go, a car does: compare car hire in Nicosia before you arrive rather than at the desk.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Nicosia on Booking.com and filter by area before price.