Cyprus

Museums & Galleries

Paphos District Archaeological Museum Digeni St, Paphos. Tel: 26 240215. Open Monday to Friday 09.00-17.00; Saturday 10.00-13.00. Houses a collection of local antiquities dating from the Neolithic Age including gold jewellery and Roman glass.

Byzantine Museum Andrea Ioannou St, Paphos. Tel: 26 232 092. Open: Monday to Friday 09.00-17.00 (19.00 in summer); Saturday 09.00-14.00. A collection of artefacts from the Byzantine period, including icons from the twelfth to the eighteenth century.

Yeroskipou Folk Art Museum 3 km east of Paphos. Tel: 26 240 216. Open Monday to Friday 09.00-17.00; Thursday 15.00-17.00 (except Jul/Aug). A varied and beautiful collection of Cyprus' folk art including some of the best loukoumi on the island.

Ethnographical Museum Vrisy St, Paphos. Tel: 26 232 010. Open Monday to Saturday 09.00-13.00; Monday to Friday (Oct-Apr) 14.00-17.00 (May-Sept) 15.00-19.00; Sunday 10.00-13.00. A private collection of functional artefacts and tools dating from the Neolithic Age, all housed in a villa built in 1894.

Phidias Art Gallery Ch. Philippides Street and the Kristus Fine Art Gallery Palamas Square, Paphos houses smaller permanent collections of contemporary works by local artists.

Marine Life Museum, beside the Monastery in Ayia Napa, on Agias Mavris 25. Tel: 23 723 409. This museum was set up by the Pierides Foundation and is made up in the most part of the private collection of naturalist George Tornaritis. You can see fossilised shells, stuffed fishes, sharks, sea birds and turtles as well as learn a bit about marine biology. It's not an extensive exhibition, but it makes a change from swimming and water sports. Open all year round. Mon-Sat 9am-2pm, Thurs 9am-2pm, 3pm-6pm.

Cultural Centre of Occupied Ammochostos in Deryneia on Evagorou 35. Tel: 23 740 860. Get the interesting background on the political situation in Cyprus, relating to the Turkish occupation of the Northern part of the island. Mon-Fri 7.30am-4.30pm, Sat 9am-4.30pm.

Deryneia Village Folkloric Museum Tel: 23 740 353. See examples of local basket-weaving and other traditional crafts. Mon-Sat 9am-1pm, 4pm-6pm.

Sotira Village Ecclesiastical Museum Only to be recommended for true religion aficionados: even to visit you have to contact the priest on 23 923 932.

Ethnographical Museum ' Avgorou

Not far from Ayia Napa, this is a typical country house showing the life from times gone by, from furniture to the old silk wheels.

Pierides, Larnaca Foundation Museum Larnaca's main and best museum houses a stunning collection of artefacts and antiquities collected by Dimtros Pierides in the 19th century. Here you will find Mycenaean treasures, Roman loot, Byzantine booty, you name it. The museum is on Zinonos Kitieos 4 and is open from 9am to 1pm and 4pm to 7pm. (652 495)