CYPRUS MUSEUM OF FOLK ART

Founded in 1937, this national museum (Μουσείο Λαϊκής Τέχνης Κύπρου/Mousio Laïki Technis Kyprou, Cyprus Folk Art Museum) has been housed since 1961 on the first floor of the former Archbishop's Palace (^15th century). Although old-fashioned, it houses a rich collection devoted to Greek Cypriot traditions from the ^17th to the ^20th centuries. The most astonishing objects are to be found in the corridor. Note the kolotzia, vegetables from the cucurbit family. These gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) are decorated with geometric motifs or historical scenes. They were used as gourds by shepherds and farmers. Next door, a Greek Orthodox altar has been reconstructed, with an icon surrounded by offerings: ploumisto psomi (decorated bread) and tamata (metal and wax ex voto representing body parts or children affected by illness or disability, but also domestic animals, such as a pig here). A little further on, two paintings have been detached from a vanished café in the village of Geri, 10 km south-east of Nicosia. They depict two heroes of Panhellenic popular culture: General Athanasios Diakos (1788-1821), who distinguished himself in the Greek War of Independence, and Panayotis Koutalianos, who was a famous wrestler in Europe and America in the 1860s and 70s. The Greek word koutalianos has since come to mean "strong man". Finally, at the end of the corridor, you can't help but fall under the spell of the paintings by the naive painter Michalis Kassialos (1885-1974).