Cyprus Folk Art Museum

The Cyprus Folk Art Museum is a museum in Cyprus dedicated to the country's ethnographic history. The Museum was founded by members of the Society of Cypriot Studies in 1937 and housed in the premises of the Archbishop's Palace. With the construction of a new seat for the Archbishop of Cyprus in 1961, the Society approached the Archbishop who graciously handed over the whole of the Old Archbishopric to the Society for its activities. From 1962 to 1964 extensive reconstruction of the building was carried out at great expense to the Society with the help of Archbishop Makarios III. In its early days, the museum was forced to close on three occasions during the 1955-1959 troubles. In 1974 the museum closed again for over a year as a result of the invasion of the Turkish Army at which time collections were removed for safekeeping. New exhibitions opened to the public in April 1996 on completion of the renovations. In June 1999, the silk industry exhibitions were inaugurated on the first floor of the building.