Archaeological Museum of Kourion
Kourion Archaeological Museum
Cyprus, Limassol
In the village of Episkopi there is a small archaeological museum, which exhibits finds from the excavations of ancient Kourion and nearby places. The Archaeological Museum of Kourion is located on the first floor of a two-storey vernacular building built in 1937 in the village of Episkopi. The most characteristic feature of this remarkable building is the large veranda on the second floor, which is supported by a series of three transverse arches located on the ground floor on the front side of the building. This house was the private residence of George McFadden, deputy director of the excavations at Kourion and at the Sanctuary of Apollo Gilates, which were carried out by the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. After McFadden's tragic death in April 1953, the building was handed over to the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus in accordance with McFadden's will.
The upper floor, consisting of a central hall and two spacious rooms, is used as a hostel for archaeologists working on Kourion, both foreigners and Cypriots. The exhibition halls of the museum are located in two large rectangular rooms on the first floor. A small room on the west side of the ground floor serves as a curator's office, while a long room on the east side is used as a restoration workshop.
The museum presents all types of ceramics, sculpture, inscriptions, coins and art objects discovered during excavations at the site of Kourion, at the sanctuary of Apollo Gilates, the necropolises of Agios Germogenis and Kalorisiki and in the vicinity of Kourion.
All exhibits in the museum are accompanied by brief explanatory texts on small labels and are supplemented by various plans and photographs. Several more finds from the sanctuary of Apollo and Kourion, including heavily damaged statues, bases of columns and statues, capitals and other architectural objects, are on display in the courtyard and in the shed in the back of the museum.