Livadia village is home to a unique basket weaving folkart using cane and reeds, and the preservation of this significant part of the village’s history has been secured through the Craft of Caning Museum, Livadia, which showcases the art of weaving and was inaugurated in November 2016.

The museum is an initiative by Livadia Municipality to create a space to preserve and share its traditional basketry ‘calamoti’, which is only practiced by a handful of women today, but was once an incredibly important part of the villagers’ everyday life and employment.

In olden days, the women spent whole days of the year paring and splitting reeds in order to make various basketry products, and Livadia is the only place on the island where ‘psatharkes’ (traditionally used for roofing) are still made, with the craft also included on the UNESCO Intangible World Heritage List.

The museum displays this rich history in a modern and attractive way within a structure itself made with cane, and comprises a large array of baskets, musical instruments, tools and other interesting exhibits and information, including a photographic exhibition.

The bench outside the museum preserves reeds in resin to symbolise the enduring nature of the basket-weaving tradition and is lit up at night. It was made by Youth Makerspace Larnaka and sponsored by Larnaka Tourism Board.

As part of the Larnaka Virtual Museums project, you can tour the museum virtually here, with enriched and bonus material from home, or whilst at the museum for a hybrid experience.
 

Virtual video: https://virtuallarnakaregion.com/LivadiaCaningMuseum/