Category: Discover Cyprus

The museum of shoemaker Christos Chrysanthou is located in the mountainous village of Spilia and was founded in 2007 by Andreas Chrysanthou in honour of his father Christos – who lived to the ripe old age of 101, and was a shoemaker by trade, among other talents.

Exhibits include the shoemaker’s bench – built in 1920 – with all associated tools for shoemaking, along with Singer machines and a ledger that dates back to 1933. Hanging on the wall are various shoe moulds, leathers and footwear.

The museum is built in the basement of the family home and has been declared a national treasure.

The Museum of Kykkos Monastery is an integral part of the monastery and houses a priceless collection of icons, consecrated vessels, manuscripts and Cypriot antiquities.

The Monastery itself is the richest and most lavish of Cyprus’ monasteries and sits on a mountain peak, at an altitude of 1.318 metres northwest of Troodos.

Dedicated to Panagia (the Virgin Mary), the monastery possesses one of three icons attributed to Agios Loukas (Apostle Luke) the Evangelist. The icon, covered in silver gilt, is in a shrine made of tortoise shell and mother-of-pearl that stands in front of the iconostasis.

Monastery of Kykkos – Audio Guide 

Located in the mountainous village of Palaichori, the museum is housed in an old restored building and exhibits the Byzantine art wealth of several churches and chapels of the village.

The exhibits date from the Frankish period to the present day, and portray a wide range of ecclesiastical art, such as icon painting, woodcarving, silverwork, weaving and printing – mainly of the post-Byzantine period.

A multimedia info-kiosk provides information about the area in four different languages.

Deserted at the beginning of the 19th century, the entire village of Fikardou has been declared an Ancient Monument, and carefully restored to preserve the 18th century houses with their remarkable woodwork and folk architecture. Two of these houses have been turned into museums, exhibiting rural items and depicting rural life in years past.

The House of Katsinioros – which was named after its last owner – is a two-storey stone-built manor house with a steep-pitched wooden roof and many architectural features of the 16th century. Following the traditional arrangement of homes of this period, the upper floor functioned as the living area of the house, while the ground floor was used for the pressing of grapes, as well as for storing other agricultural produce and tools – all of which can be seen at the museum.

There is also an exhibition of photographs, drawings and texts on how the houses were restored, earning them – and the village – the Europa Nostra Award in 1987.

The second house – that of Achilleas Dimitri – has been turned into a weaver’s workshop and scholar’s guest house.