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Archaeological Museum of the Lemesos
Point 6/10
1975
Year of construction
Hector Stylianides
Architect
Let’s get comfortable near the fence and look at the facade of the Limassol Archaeological Museum, which houses — as you can see in the foreground — a collection of ancient sarcophagi.
The architect Hector Stylianides (also spelled Stilianides), an employee of the Department of Public Works, decorated a simple parallelepiped volume with arched gables (semicircular decoration of the vault), a characteristic technique for the Byzantine tradition.
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And yet, if there were not a row of sarcophagi in front of the building, it would be difficult to understand what kind of building it is. It could very well be a factory.
In the second half of the 20th century, architects abandoned direct associations. For example, the classical international-style New National Gallery (Neue Nationalgalerie) in Berlin by the architect Mies van der Rohe was originally designed for a rum distillery.
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The main facade of the Museum on George Byron Street is also modest. When compared with the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia, it is a jump from traditional museum architecture: in Limassol, you find no grand porticoes, no colonnade, no playing with expensive decoration — no dust in the eyes. We are in 1975, the tragic division of the island has just happened — Turkish troops occupied its most fertile and developed areas, which provided 75 % of national income. The only solemn form coding the museum as a Temple of Art is a ceremonial staircase, quite modest. There is now an elevator for people with special needs.
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