The Leventis Museum, Nicosia told from the inside

Some museums are for looking at beautiful things and some are for understanding a place. The Leventis is the second kind. It’s the history museum of Nicosia, and I’d make it the first stop of any visit to the capital. Here’s what it holds and how to get the most from it, drawing on what the museum and the municipality publish.

A museum born at the town hall

The idea came from mayor Lellos Demetriades in 1984, with sponsorship from the A. G. Leventis Foundation, and the museum opened in April 1989. It occupies three restored historic buildings on Ippokratous Street, right in Laiki Geitonia. In 1991 it received the award of the European Museum Award Committee, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, and it describes itself as the museum of Europe’s last divided capital.

The collection runs to more than 10,000 objects, from maps, documents and paintings to engravings and costumes, spread over three floors.

The rooms I’d linger in

The route is chronological and begins long before the city, when the sea between the Troodos and the Pentadaktylos gave way to the Mesaoria plain. Then come ancient Nicosia, the Byzantine and medieval town, when it was the Lusignan capital, and the Venetian, Ottoman, British and Republic eras.

Two things stand out for me. First, the map collection, mostly plans of Nicosia from the 16th to the 18th century showing the walls and the Ottoman siege of 1570; the mayor himself started it in 1989 by donating nine maps. Second, the medieval glazed pottery, one of the richest collections on the island, which the museum follows from the 13th to the 16th century, with pieces decorated with knights, ladies and coats of arms that give away the crusader influence.

That pottery comes with a detail I love. The museum explains that in the 15th century the wares flooding the Cypriot market came from Lapithos, now in the north, and that recent studies show they were also made in Nicosia itself.

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Hours and price

It keeps hours of 10:00 to 16:30 every day except Mondays and public holidays. Entry is free and the museum relies on voluntary donations, according to the municipality. Free floor plans come in Greek, English, Italian, French and German, all the gallery text is in Greek and English, and there are facilities for disabled visitors.

Making the most of it

I’d arrive at 10:00 on the first day and allow about ninety minutes. Then I’d step out to Eleftheria Square and head down into the moat by the Venetian walls of Nicosia with the maps still in my head. If art is your thing, the Leventis Gallery, from the same foundation but devoted to painting, is five minutes away. My ranking of the rest is in museums in Nicosia.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Leventis Museum on GetYourGuide.

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