The National Struggle Museum, 1955-1959 seen from Nicosia

To understand today’s Nicosia you need to know what happened between 1955 and 1959, and this museum tells that story from one particular side, that of the people who fought British rule. Below is what’s inside, when it opens and how I’d approach it, based on the municipality and the Tourism Board.

What it covers

The municipality describes it as a museum of documents, photographs, personal belongings of the people involved and other memorabilia from the campaign against British rule. It was founded, once the campaign was over, by an EOKA fighter, Christodoulos Papachrysostomou, and in 2001 it moved into purpose-built premises paid for by the archbishopric and the Ministry of Education and Culture. The Tourism Board says it presents the EOKA struggle through the organisation’s objects, photographs and papers.

So it’s one side’s account. I think that deserves saying, and just as fair to say it’s worth seeing, especially for a British visitor, because it explains a great deal of what you’ll notice in the streets outside.

The background, briefly

Nicosia municipality tells the period like this. In 1950 a Church-run referendum produced a Greek Cypriot majority for union with Greece, and in April 1955 the uprising broke out. That October, talks began at the Ledra Palace Hotel between the British governor, Sir John Harding, and Archbishop Makarios, ending six months later with his exile to the Seychelles. A state of emergency was declared in November 1955, and Ledra Street became known as the Murder Mile. The Zurich and London agreements of February 1959 opened the way to independence.

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Hours and entry

The Tourism Board lists it as open on weekday mornings until 14:30, with free entry. No weekend hours are published. The municipality says it’s wheelchair accessible.

Other places from those years

The museum is the starting point, but memories of 1955-1959 are spread across the island. In Nicosia, the Liberty Monument stands on the Podocataro bastion of the walls. In the mountains, the Troodos Development Company lists Grigoris Afxentiou’s hideout in Palaichori, restored in 1977, the research centre and museum of the struggle in the family home of Polykarpos Yiorkatzis in the same village, and the Pelendri monument, with 108 steps, one for each fighter who died. Machairas Monastery, in the forest south of the capital, was also a refuge. If you visit any of them, you’ll find they tell the same story as the museum.

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How I’d approach it

I’d visit in the morning, on the same round as the Archbishop’s Palace in Nicosia, the Byzantine Museum and the cathedral, and give it an hour. Nearby, on the walls’ Podocataro bastion, stands the Liberty Monument, which the Tourism Board dates to 1973 and which honours the EOKA fighters. For the city’s other museums, see museums in Nicosia.

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