Situated in the lively village of Avgorou, the Avgorou Ethnographic Museum is housed in a renovated stone-built farm house. The village community wanted to preserve and protect the heritage of the area while displaying it to locals and visitors alike. A Government’s grant, then enabled the purchase and renovation of the farmhouse that houses the museum.
The collection contains many exhibits donated by Avgorou resi­dents, with small cards detailing who made the contribution, and to whom it is dedicated. The Museum also houses the Pierides Foundation Folk Art Collection, which has some outstanding exhibits.

Building work began on the original farm house in 1921 and was completed in 1925. The house was built in the traditional central plains style, but was grander than the typical village residence. The plot also included a 12-donum orchard, a citrus grove, a sheepfold, a water reserve and a pigeon coop.

Entering the museum from the main street, the visitor passes through an attractive arched doorway. Once inside, the house’s original store room is immediately to the right. This room is of traditional construction, with a flagstone floor, and was used to store wheat, barley, animal fodder and agricultural fertilizers, and features an interesting ‘loft’ at the end of the room. Oke weights are displayed on the wall, a weighing system still referred to by older Cypriots, while a grinding machine, a millstone and other smaller items are on display.
Leaving this room, the visitor find themselves in the ‘Iliakos’, a rectangular, partly covered, yard. Due to the island’s fine weather, many household chores would be carried out in the yard. The clay oven for baking and bread making was located here and on Sundays, the family would dine on the courtyard. During the sum­mer months, the family beds would be moved out here to take advan­tage of the cooler air.

Next to the olive oil and wine storage pots can be seen the ‘Vrakas’ dyeing vat. Vrakas were the tradi­tional trousers worn by Cypriot men and, since they consisted of yards and yards of material, the utensil used for dyeing needed to be quite large. The dye was made from pomegranate peel and pecan nuts.
The ‘Dichoro’ is the main room of the residence. Originally it would have contained an iron bed, a table, a carved wooden wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a wooden chest and the family strong box. Today, the room displays sets of traditional male and female clothing and superb examples of silver jewellery. The shelf running around the room would have held the family’s glazed items and crockery, and the visitor cannot help but admire the craftsmanship of the dowry chests and linen, which are on display.
Leading from this room is the ‘Sospito’, or ‘Monochoro’. This was used as a pantry to store provisions, including olive oil, flour and halloumi cheese. Many bread making imple­ments are on display, alongside an impressive loom, complete with other tools of the weaving trade, which played an important role in many local households.
The last rooms on the ground floor are the stable and barn, which today house many traditional farm­ing implements.

Outside and beyond the stable, a well-preserved water wheel is still in place. This area would originally have had a variety of nut and fruit trees. A staircase from the courtyard leads upstairs to two bedrooms and a balcony that overlooks the road.
Traditional bedroom furnishings would have been simple, usually an iron bed and a wardrobe. The first bedroom now displays local artwork alongside a wedding dress, petticoat and a groom’s silk shirt.
The second bedroom has a wood carved painted cupboard from the Karpass village of Eptakomi and a superb carved bed from Lefkara which is an imitation of a Venetian original. The arched opening between the bedrooms would have had wooden doors giving access to the flat roof, which would have been used to dry produce such as grapes.
The Ethnographic Museum is well signposted from the main highway between Larnaka and Agia Napa and is an ideal opportunity to savour Cypriot life of yesteryear.