Lefkoşa Museum brings the city’s past into focus at Girne Gate

Lefkoşa Museum at Girne Gate in the walled city presents collections spanning the history, culture, art and everyday urban life of Lefkoşa, according to accounts published by Yenidüzen and Halkın Sesi.

The museum’s displays range from contemporary paintings and sculpture to material connected with maritime and postal history, traditional shadow theatre, and models of ships and automobiles. Together, the collections trace varied aspects of the city and Cyprus across different periods.

Its Ottoman Collection was assembled in cooperation with the TRNC National Archives and Research Department. It includes manuscript books, decrees, population registers, court records and correspondence from Evkaf. Among the items highlighted by the publications are a property deed bearing the tughra of Sultan Murad IV, a ceramic copy of a Piri Reis map and population records from the 19th century.

The museum also displays hyperrealistic silicone sculptures of figures including Dr Fazıl Küçük, Rauf Raif Denktaş, Osman Örek, Fehmi Ercan and Cengiz Topel. Cultural figures represented in the collection include folk poet Aynalı, storyteller Mehmet Ertuğ, musician Ahmet Becerikli and members of the Mehmetaliler Music Group, Halkın Sesi reported.

A separate bust collection is dedicated to Turkish Cypriot writers, including Kaytazzade Mehmet Nazım, Hikmet Afif Mapolar, Osman Türkay, Özker Yaşın, Urkiye Mine Balman and Fikret Demirağ.

Prof. Dr İrfan Suat Günsel, chairman of the Near East Formation Board of Trustees, said the museum was intended to help children and young people explore the story of their city, while offering visitors to Cyprus a starting point for learning about the island. He also said it aims to convey Lefkoşa’s story and the island’s different historical periods to visitors.