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sequently, the museological approach focused
on two axes or pillars on which the exhibition
and its journey through time, space and history
were defined and built. On the one hand, the lo-
cal element, the Cypriots, is presented through
the most common characteristics which rep-
resent them: their education, mentality and
cultural heritage – a series of Byzantine and
post-Byzantine icons express the “poor Cypri-
otes,” as the 14
th
century Cypriot chronicler Le-
ontios Machairas describes them. To this end,
between 1191 and the present day, the eccle-
siastical icons represent Cypriot worship and
veneration; they are tangible manifestations of
religious devotion and the expression of local
artists.
Other objects, such as pottery and metalwork, are
exhibited together with information and references
from historical sources, and special reference is
made to the music of the medieval kingdom of
the island through a rare handwritten score which
brings to life the glory and prestige of the royal
court of the Lusignans. This was the first axis.
How have Europeans viewed
Cyprus since the Crusades?
The second axis focuses on the European continent
and demonstrates the way in which Europeans
saw Cyprus from the time of the Crusades to the
present day. Efforts were made to collect objects,
works of art and information which record the per-
ception Europeans had when they first encountered
Cyprus on the road to Jerusalem; these same Euro-
peans later conquered and transformed the island
into one of the best-known medieval kingdoms of
Europe. It all began with Melusine, the fairy who
founded the kingdoms of Europe and sent her chil-
dren to the East to attain wealth and glory and who
later linked the House of Lusignan with other royal
families of continental Europe. The story is also
unravelled by European chroniclers who pay trib-
ute to the kingdom and the riches of the Lusignans
of Cyprus. The last queen of the Medieval King-
dom of Cyprus, the daughter of Venice, Caterina
Cornaro, was painted and glorified by the greatest
artists of her time, while Cyprus, the jewel in the
crown of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, en-
joyed golden days of wealth and glory as recorded
by contemporary historians.
Myths and legends
Myths and legends about the island of Cyprus
can be found in the writings of foreign travel-
lers who visited the island and in Shakespeare,
whose hero, Othello, the Moor of Venice, spent
time in Famagusta, the fortified port of the Most
Serene Republic of Venice in Cyprus. The great
war of Cyprus, which marked the fall of the last
bastion of Europe in the Eastern Mediterranean
and its occupation by the Ottoman Empire, the
new force in the region, is uniquely described
by European historians in books and other docu-
ments selected for display in this exhibition.
Finally, during the 17
th
and 18
th
centuries, the
importance of the island was emphasised in the
work of European cartographers, while the earli-
est photographs of Cyprus, taken by photogra-
phers who came to the island at the time of the
arrival of the British in 1878, record and depict
the European origins of the island and its bond
with the continent. These photographs feature
A view from the British period room with the collection of
Lord Kitcheners Trigonometrical map of Cyprus, the first
modern map of Cyprus