LEVENTIS MUSEUM

Housed in an elegant neoclassical building from 1892, this municipal museum (Λεβέντειο Δημοτικό Μουσείο/Leventio Dimotiko Mousio) brings together objects tracing the 5,000 years of Nicosia's history from the Paleolithic to the 20th century. Created in 1989, it houses in particular the private collection of the Cypriot merchant Anastasios Leventis (1902-1978) who made his fortune in Africa. The modern and didactic museography makes the visit pleasant. In room 2, on the first floor, the oldest objects (3900-325 B.C.) are exhibited, mainly ceramics from the tombs of Ledra, the ancestor of Nicosia founded around 1050 B.C. The entire^first floor is devoted to the city from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. The long Byzantine period (4th-12th centuries) is traced in a single room (^no. 4), almost exclusively through coins. The next three rooms, devoted to the Lusignan period (1192-1489), are the richest: Frankish and Byzantine coins, jewels, weapons, armor and very beautiful examples of colored and glazed dishes. The two rooms on the Venetian period (1489-1570) contain superb pieces of crockery and plans of the formidable fortifications of the city.

From the Ottoman era to the era of looting. Rooms 11 to 15 on the Ottoman period (1570-1878) are rather poor, in spite of interesting examples of goldsmithery (room 14). But they are very didactic. It is clear that the Orthodox inhabitants enjoyed greater religious freedom than during the Latin occupation. On the^second floor, the British period (1878-1960) is summarized in a room with objects and documents of everyday life: tea service, newspapers, costumes, stamps, etc. Going back down to the first floor, one should not miss two other private collections also entrusted to the municipality. In room 17, the Leto and Costakis Severis collection is "politically sensitive". It is in fact largely composed of archaeological objects from looting carried out during the civil conflict between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in the 1960s. This collection, which included up to 2,000 objects, was itself largely looted during the 1974 invasion. The pieces on display here are nonetheless valuable, and their questionable origin is noted by the museum. Finally, in room 19^, the 150 surviving objects (including graceful terracotta pottery) of the great Phylactou collection created between 1935 and 1944, then dislocated during the chaos of the Turkish invasion, are presented.