A weekend trip to the museum? Not in Larnaca

By Rita Kyriakides

THE LARNACA District Archaeological Museum admitted yesterday it was having to remain closed at weekends for lack of visitors.

The Museum displays a collection of finds from the Larnaca area, dating from the Neolithic Age to the Roman period. But it is only open from Monday to Friday from 9am until 2.30pm as well as Thursday afternoons from 3-5pm.

A source at the Museum said it had always been closed at weekends, but in the face of complaints, the government had decided to open in the afternoons and on weekends for a trial period.

” For an eight-month period, the Archaeological Museum was open in the afternoons and on weekends. However, the government decided it was not worthwhile,”the source said.

It was decided there were not enough visitors to the Museum to justify the extra hours or the hiring of more employees.

” The government decides on these matters. We are just the employees and we do as we are told,”said the source.

In contrast the privately-owned nbsp;Pierides Foundation Museum in Larnaca is open seven days a week, with afternoon opening in the summer.

An employee at the Pierides Museum said they were busy during the summer months, whether during the week or weekends.

” We have many groups of tourists coming to the museum during summer, on all days of the week,”she said.

The Pierides Museum houses ancient, mediaeval, Byzantine and more recent objects belonging to the Pierides family, as well as modern Greek and Cypriot sculptures.

The only other District Museum that remains closed in Cyprus is again Larnaca, the District Mediaeval Museum, at Larnaca fort. It has never been open at weekends.

The majority of other museums across Cyprus are open every afternoon and for at least six days a week.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.