Pierides Museum
The island's oldest private collection of antiquities, shown in the colonial-era Pierides family house.
The museum occupies the former residence of the Pierides family, a low colonial-style house of 1825 in the centre of Larnaca. Its collection was begun by Demetrios Pierides, who from the middle of the nineteenth century bought back Cypriot antiquities that were being taken off the island by consular agents and dealers. Successive generations of the family added to the holdings, and the house was opened to the public as the oldest private museum in Cyprus. It is now run in association with the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation.
Several thousand objects are arranged in a series of small domestic rooms, covering the Neolithic period through to the medieval centuries. Red Polished ware and other early Bronze Age pottery, terracotta figurines, Mycenaean imports, Roman glass and Byzantine and medieval glazed ceramics are the principal strengths. A separate room holds a collection of engraved maps of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean, and there are displays of traditional embroidery and folk material from the island.
Highlights
- Red Polished ware and early Bronze Age Cypriot pottery
- Terracotta figurines gathered in the nineteenth century
- Roman glassware and Byzantine glazed ceramics
- Room of engraved maps of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean
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