BYZANTIN MUSEUM

This ecclesiastical museum (Βυζαντινό Μουσείο/Viyzantino Mousio) belongs to the Makarios-III Foundation. Founded in 1982, it houses the richest collection of Orthodox icons in the Eastern Mediterranean (over 300). At the time we finished this guide, it was still undergoing restoration. The reopening, scheduled for summer 2024, was to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Turkish occupation of the northern part of the country. On this occasion, new pieces were to be presented: icons stolen from churches in the northern zone since 1974 and patiently recovered with the help of the judiciary and donors by the Makarios-III Foundation. Since 1991, the collection had already been enriched by the rescue of four fragments of the precious ^6th-century mosaic from the church of Panagia Kanakaria, looted in 1979 in Boltaşlı/Lythrangomi, on the Karpas peninsula. The new museography will also highlight the most important icons in the collection. The oldest of these is the ^{ninth-century} Panagia Vlachernitissa: a representation of the Virgin of the Blacherns that was - according to legend - found on the site of today's Faneromeni Church in Nicosia in 1715. The superb icons from the Troodos churches listed as Unesco World Heritage Sites should also feature prominently: the early^12th-century icon of St. John the Baptist from the church of Panagia Asinou, the^12th-century portraits of Christ and the Virgin from the church of Panagia Arakiotissa, and more.