8. Kosmos tis Kyprou (Cyprus’ world)

At the end of Aischilou street turn right to Solonos street. After walking for around 250 meters turn left to Pythonos street. On your left you can see the popular graffiti Kosmos tis Kyproy

In Pythonos street, on the wall outside the former Market Company, you can admire the graffiti Kosmos tis Kyproy (meaning Cyprus' World) designed by the most popular street artist in Cyprus, the so-called Paparazzi (Achilleas Michaelides). He created his own contemporary version of Adamantios Diamantis’ work Kosmos tis Kyproy. “Diamantis would go from village to village to spot all sorts of people and paint them. I took photos of all different individuals that I found, inspired by old town Nicosia, as well as all over Cyprus, with many different races in the mix. I wanted to draw the colorful and happy Cyprus, a multicultural country with all different styles of people, all different backgrounds.” The work features approximately 100 people and took two months to create.

One of the first Cypriots who wanted to live by his art, Adamantios Diamantis, born in 1900, studied fine arts in London at the Saint Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art and today he is considered the father of Cypriot art. Back to Cyprus, he worked as an art professor and on creating the Cyprus Folk Art Museum. His masterpiece and most well known work is The World of Cyprus, which is now on display at the Cyprus Collection of the A.G. Leventis Gallery. This monumental painting, consisting of 11 panels and executed from 1967 to 1972, presents the traditional Cypriot society until the 1970s through 67 different human figures that the artist had met and drawn during his journey throughout the island’s villages between 1931 and 1959.

Due to its geographical and strategic location, Cyprus was always a cultural crossroad and a bridge between Europe and the Middle East and therefore it has an extremely rich history and heritage. Greeks, Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians and Romans ruled the island. After Rome fell, Cyprus became part of the Byzantine empire. In the 12th century it was captured by King Richard I of England who sold it to the French House of Lusignan. In 1197, Aimery de Lusignan became the first king of Cyprus. In the 15th century Venetians controlled the island, while from 1578 it was under Ottoman occupation. In 1925, it became a British colony, and remained so until it gained independence in 1960. All these conquerors have left behind their mark and visible remnants of their presence, creating a multicultural mosaic.